feat: reverse `pnpm why` tree and improve `list`/`why` output by zkochan · Pull Request #10615 · pnpm/pnpm

zkochan · 2026-02-13T20:13:12Z

Summary

pnpm why now shows a reverse dependency tree. The searched package appears at the root with its dependants as branches, walking back to workspace roots. This replaces the previous forward-tree output which was noisy and hard to read for deeply nested dependencies.
Replaced archy with a new @pnpm/text.tree-renderer package that renders trees using box-drawing characters (├──, └──, │) and supports grouped sections, dim connectors, and deduplication markers.
Show peer dependency hash suffixes in pnpm list and pnpm why output to distinguish between different peer-dep variants of the same package.
Improved pnpm list visual output: bold importer nodes, dimmed workspace paths, dependency grouping, package count summary, and deterministic sort order.
Added --long support to pnpm why and the ability to read package manifests from the CAS store.
Deduplicated shared code between list and why commands into a common module, and reused getPkgInfo in the why tree builder.

Test plan

Unit tests for @pnpm/text.tree-renderer (new package)
Unit tests for renderWhyTree
Updated integration tests for pnpm list and pnpm why
Updated recursive list tests

Display a short hash (#xxxx) next to packages that have peer dependency resolutions, but only when the same name@version appears with multiple distinct peer variants in the output. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts

Extract DEDUPED_LABEL to peerVariants.ts and simplify deduped rendering in pnpm list to match the why output style (no child count node). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…ation Sort edges in the data layer (getTree, buildWhyTree) so that the alphabetically-first occurrence of a package is always fully expanded while later duplicates get [deduped]. Replace localeCompare with lexCompare from @pnpm/util.lex-comparator for consistency. Remove redundant ramda-based sorting from renderTree. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

The readManifest callback passed to finder functions in `pnpm why` now reads the actual package.json from the content-addressable store using the integrity hash from the lockfile. This works correctly for all configurations including enableGlobalVirtualStore. Also preserves finder string messages in the why output (searchMessage field on WhyPackageResult) and removes the now-unused virtualStoreDirMaxLength parameter from buildWhyTrees/whyForPackages. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Extract shared CLI helpers (computeInclude, resolveFinders, determineReportAs, shorthands, help options) into common.ts. Move collectHashes to peerVariants.ts. Unify readManifest to use CAFS store-based reading in both list and why paths, with filesystem fallback for list. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…m why - Extract shared resolvePackagePath function for both list and why commands, handling global virtual store symlink resolution correctly - Add --long flag support to pnpm why (description, repository, homepage, path) reusing getPkgInfo from the list package to avoid code duplication - Use projectPaths in buildWhyTrees to respect --filter/--recursive flags Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…ifest logic Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR significantly refactors the pnpm list and pnpm why commands to improve their output and usability.

Purpose:
Replace the archy package with a custom tree renderer (@pnpm/text.tree-renderer) and reverse the pnpm why output to show a bottom-up dependency tree (from the searched package back to workspace roots), making it easier to understand why a package is installed.

Changes:

Introduces @pnpm/text.tree-renderer package with box-drawing characters and grouped sections
Reverses pnpm why tree to show dependants walking back to importers
Shows peer dependency hash suffixes to distinguish peer-dep variants
Adds visual improvements: bold importers, dimmed paths, dependency grouping, package count summary
Deduplicates shared code between list and why into common.ts

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 42 out of 43 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
text/tree-renderer/*	New package for rendering tree structures with box-drawing characters and grouped sections
reviewing/list/src/renderWhyTree.ts	New module for rendering reverse dependency trees for `pnpm why`
reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts	Updated to use new tree renderer and add peer hash suffixes
reviewing/list/src/peerVariants.ts	New module with shared functions for peer dependency variant handling
reviewing/list/src/index.ts	Added `whyForPackages` function for the new why implementation
reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/buildWhyTree.ts	New module that builds reverse dependency trees
reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/{resolvePackagePath,readManifestFromCafs,peersSuffixHash}.ts	New helper modules for path resolution and manifest reading
reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/getPkgInfo.ts	Refactored to use new helper functions and support reading manifests from CAFS
reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/getTree.ts	Added deterministic sorting and peer hash tracking
reviewing/plugin-commands-listing/src/common.ts	New shared module with common functions for list and why commands
reviewing/plugin-commands-listing/src/{list,why}.ts	Refactored to use shared code and updated why handler
reviewing/plugin-commands-listing/test/*	Updated tests to match new output format
packages/render-peer-issues/*	Updated to use new tree renderer
dedupe/issues-renderer/*	Updated to use new tree renderer

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text/tree-renderer/src/index.ts

reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts

- buildDependenciesHierarchy → buildDependenciesTree - buildWhyTrees → buildDependentsTree - DependenciesHierarchy → DependenciesTree - WhyPackageResult → DependentsTree - WhyDependant → Dependent (American spelling) - dependants → dependents (field names, variables, comments) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

- Skip reading currentLockfile when checkWantedLockfileOnly is true - Remove defensive readManifest fallback (match buildDependenciesTree) - Hoist WalkContext creation out of the match loop Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

- Use options objects instead of 4+ positional arguments - Fix import ordering (stdlib alphabetical, externals before third-party) - Move helper function after its callers (hoisting convention) Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…dentNode Symmetric naming for tree node types: DependencyNode for the forward tree, DependentNode for the reverse tree. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 46 out of 47 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

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reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts

reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/buildDependentsTree.ts

reviewing/list/src/index.ts

reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/peersSuffixHash.ts

reviewing/plugin-commands-listing/src/why.ts

reviewing/list/src/renderDependentsTree.ts

- Replace MD5 with SHA-256 in peersSuffixHash for FIPS compatibility - Fix listSummary double-counting deduped packages - Fix unsafe non-null assertion on importerInfoMap.get() - Fix import spacing in renderDependentsTree - Fix comment describing npm-alias display format - Fix backtick escaping in tree-renderer JSDoc - Move lockfile reading out of buildDependentsTree into the caller so the lockfile is read once and passed down, eliminating the duplicate read and the lockfile sync issue between whyForPackages and buildDependentsTree Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 46 out of 47 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

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reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/buildDependentsTree.ts

text/tree-renderer/src/index.ts

reviewing/list/src/renderDependentsTree.ts

…Summary grouping - Sort trees by name, semver version, and peersSuffixHash for deterministic output - Add serialized ID tiebreaker to edge sorting in walkReverse - Fix tree-renderer: use flattened items.length for continuation chars and hasRenderableChildren() for connector detection (handles empty groups) - Rewrite whySummary to group by package name so multi-package why queries produce per-package summary lines - Add tests for tree-renderer empty group edge cases and whySummary variants Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 47 out of 48 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

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Copilot · 2026-02-15T12:55:57Z

reviewing/list/src/renderDependentsTree.ts

+        rootLabelParts.push(result.searchMessage)
+      }
+      if (opts.long && result.path) {
+        const pkg = await getPkgInfo({ name: result.name, version: result.version, path: result.path, alias: undefined })


The getPkgInfo function in reviewing/list/src/getPkgInfo.ts has a parameter alias that can be undefined, but this differs from the function signature in reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/getPkgInfo.ts where alias is required (not optional). When calling this function from renderDependentsTree.ts at lines 20 and 120 with alias: undefined, there may be a type mismatch if TypeScript strict null checks are enabled. Consider making the parameter consistently optional across both implementations or providing a default value.

Suggested change

const pkg = await getPkgInfo({ name: result.name, version: result.version, path: result.path, alias: undefined })

const pkg = await getPkgInfo({ name: result.name, version: result.version, path: result.path })

reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/peersSuffixHash.ts

reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts

reviewing/dependencies-hierarchy/src/buildDependentsTree.ts

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

- **`pnpm why` now shows a reverse dependency tree.** The searched package appears at the root with its dependants as branches, walking back to workspace roots. This replaces the previous forward-tree output which was noisy and hard to read for deeply nested dependencies. - **Replaced `archy` with a new `@pnpm/text.tree-renderer` package** that renders trees using box-drawing characters (├──, └──, │) and supports grouped sections, dim connectors, and deduplication markers. - **Show peer dependency hash suffixes** in `pnpm list` and `pnpm why` output to distinguish between different peer-dep variants of the same package. - **Improved `pnpm list` visual output:** bold importer nodes, dimmed workspace paths, dependency grouping, package count summary, and deterministic sort order. - **Added `--long` support to `pnpm why`** and the ability to read package manifests from the CAS store. - **Deduplicated shared code** between `list` and `why` commands into a common module, and reused `getPkgInfo` in the why tree builder.

`bit why` now shows a reverse dependency tree. The searched package appears at the root with its dependents as branches, walking back to workspace components. This replaces the previous forward-tree output which was noisy and hard to read for deeply nested dependencies. Also with the complete rewrite of the dependency tree builder we have fixed the out-of-memory errors that were frequent with the why command. The command also became a lot faster. ## Proposed Changes Related PRs: - pnpm/pnpm#10582 - pnpm/pnpm#10586 - pnpm/pnpm#10615 - pnpm/pnpm#10616 - pnpm/pnpm#10627 - pnpm/pnpm#10629 - pnpm/pnpm#10596 --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

zkochan changed the title ~~Perf/list peer hashes~~ feat: show peer hashes in list output Feb 13, 2026

zkochan force-pushed the perf/list-peer-hashes branch from 827cead to 8e394cd Compare February 13, 2026 21:16

zkochan and others added 3 commits February 13, 2026 22:20

feat: wip

03e3ed8

feat: improve list output

e38b935

zkochan force-pushed the perf/list-peer-hashes branch from 8e394cd to e38b935 Compare February 13, 2026 23:10

zkochan added 3 commits February 14, 2026 01:10

feat: improve list output

b948a85

feat: replaced archy with own library

fcea9ed

feat: add grouping of dependencies in pnpm list

a14006b

github-advanced-security bot found potential problems Feb 14, 2026

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reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts Fixed Show fixed Hide fixed

zkochan and others added 18 commits February 14, 2026 02:33

feat: reverse the tree printed by pnpm why

6f39646

refactor: renderers

bc6d9fc

refactor: share deduped label constant between list and why renderers

05efb27

Extract DEDUPED_LABEL to peerVariants.ts and simplify deduped rendering in pnpm list to match the why output style (no child count node). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

style: remove underline from list root label, dim workspace path

c233c51

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

style: bold importer nodes and always show dep field in why tree

6582279

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

feat: show version summary at the end of pnpm why output

297aac3

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

feat: add package count summary to pnpm list tree output

5bb934e

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

chore: update lockfile

3ec51cd

refactor: replace regex with trimEnd() in list tree rendering

c2bbe50

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

test: fix

3b43116

Merge branch 'main' into perf/list-peer-hashes

5231eb3

test: fix

ce59bee

refactor: reuse getPkgInfo in buildWhyTree instead of inline path/man…

0d7e099

…ifest logic Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

test: fix

81c549f

zkochan changed the title ~~feat: show peer hashes in list output~~ feat: reverse pnpm why tree and improve list/why output Feb 14, 2026

docs: add changeset

fee0551

zkochan requested a review from gluxon as a code owner February 15, 2026 00:29

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 15, 2026 00:29

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of zkochan February 15, 2026 00:29 View session

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text/tree-renderer/src/index.ts Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

reviewing/list/src/renderTree.ts Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

zkochan and others added 8 commits February 15, 2026 01:53

refactor: rename renderWhyTree to renderDependentsTree

33ab506

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

refactor: pass registries through options instead of hardcoding

44cccd4

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fix: use correct spelling "dependents" in changeset

e3ccd5e

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

refactor: rename PackageNode to DependencyNode and Dependent to Depen…

2f62226

…dentNode Symmetric naming for tree node types: DependencyNode for the forward tree, DependentNode for the reverse tree. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

refactor: rename results variable to trees for clarity

8a87d02

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

zkochan requested a review from Copilot February 15, 2026 11:24

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zkochan requested a review from Copilot February 15, 2026 12:52

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View reviewed changes

fix: replace non-null assertion with guard for unresolved package nodes

9e3c008

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

zkochan merged commit 7d5ada0 into main Feb 15, 2026
13 checks passed

zkochan deleted the perf/list-peer-hashes branch February 15, 2026 13:38

zkochan mentioned this pull request Feb 17, 2026

feat: improve bit why teambit/bit#10193

Merged

	const pkg = await getPkgInfo({ name: result.name, version: result.version, path: result.path, alias: undefined })
	const pkg = await getPkgInfo({ name: result.name, version: result.version, path: result.path })

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zkochan commented Feb 13, 2026 •

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