Dependency Analysis

Reflex tracks file-level dependencies by extracting import/require/use statements from your code. This powers reverse lookups, circular dependency detection, hotspot analysis, and more.

Per-file dependencies with rfx deps

See what a specific file imports:

rfx deps src/auth/handler.rs

src/auth/handler.rs
├── src/auth/credentials.rs (internal)
├── src/auth/session.rs (internal)
├── src/models/user.rs (internal)
├── anyhow (external)
└── std::collections::HashMap (stdlib)

Reverse dependencies

Find every file that imports a given file:

rfx deps src/auth/handler.rs --reverse

This answers “what breaks if I change this file?” — essential for safe refactoring.

Deeper traversal

Explore transitive dependencies:

rfx deps src/main.rs --depth 3

Output formats

# Tree view (default)
rfx deps src/main.rs --format tree

# Table view
rfx deps src/main.rs --format table

# JSON for scripting
rfx deps src/main.rs --json

Codebase analysis with rfx analyze

Analyze your entire dependency graph:

Circular dependencies

rfx analyze --circular

Finds dependency cycles (A → B → C → A) that can cause build issues and architectural problems.

Hotspots

rfx analyze --hotspots

Identifies files with the highest fan-in (most depended upon). These are your highest-impact files — changes here affect the most code.

Unused files

rfx analyze --unused

Finds files that nothing imports — potential dead code candidates.

Isolated subgraphs

rfx analyze --islands

Detects disconnected clusters of files that have no dependency relationship with the rest of your codebase.

Pagination

For large results, use --limit and --offset:

rfx analyze --hotspots --limit 20 --offset 0
rfx analyze --hotspots --limit 20 --offset 20

Or get everything at once:

rfx analyze --hotspots --all --json

Dependency types

Reflex classifies every dependency into one of three types:

Type	Description	Example
internal	Files within your project	use crate::auth::handler
external	Third-party packages	use anyhow::Result
stdlib	Standard library	use std::collections::HashMap

Supported languages

Dependency extraction works across all 15 supported languages. See Supported Languages for the full matrix of what import syntax each language supports.

Language	Import syntax
Rust	use, mod, extern crate
TypeScript/JavaScript	import, require()
Python	import, from...import
Go	import
Java/Kotlin	import
C/C++	#include
C#	using
PHP	use, require, include
Ruby	require, require_relative
Vue/Svelte	imports from <script> blocks
Zig	@import()

Adding dependency context to searches

Add --dependencies to a regular query to see import context alongside search results:

rfx query "handleRequest" --dependencies

This enriches each result with the file’s direct dependencies, useful for understanding the context around a match.

Next steps

• AI Integration — dependency data is available through MCP tools
• CLI Commands — full rfx deps and rfx analyze reference
• Architecture — how the dependency index works internally