Dotnet project and package dependency visualizer.
Requires .NET 5 or higher
dotnet tool install DependenSee --global
available on Nuget
dotnet tool uninstall DependenSee --global
DependenSee root/of/projects path/to/output.html
Current popular options are to either use NDepend, VS Architecture Explorer or Code Map. While these options are feature rich, they also has a licensing cost. If all you want is to see the dependency graph, and nothing else, it may be hard to justify the licensing cost. Then DependenSee
is for you.
If you need to see the Type structure, relationships between your methods or types .etc. then you should use one of the options above instead. DependenSee is mean to be very simple, easy, straight forward to use and FREE! DependenSee
does not intend to compete with the above. See Limitations
- Creates the dependency graph for your solution.
- Can only include or exclude certain namespaces so the result is not overwhelming or filled with noise.
- Can create HTML, XML, JSON outputs
- Can return XML or JSON to
STDOUT
for further processing by other command line tools
For full docs run without any arguments
DependenSee
Usage - DependenSee <SourceFolder> [<OutputPath>] -options
Shows help descriptions. Help is also displayed if no arguments were provided.
Shorthand: -H
DependenSee -Help
DependenSee -H
DependenSee
Root folder (usually solution folder) to look for csproj files recursively. If no explicit options are specified, the first argument is assumed to be this option.
If your path has spaces, you will need to enclose it in double quotes.
DependenSee \Source\MySolutionFolder
DependenSee -SourceFolder \Source\MySolutionFolder
DependenSee -S \Source\MySolutionFolder
Path to write the result. Not required if writing the output to stdout. If no explicit options are specified, the second argument is assumed to be this option.
If your path has spaces, you will need to enclose it in double quotes.
Shorthand: -O
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O \Test\MyOutput.html
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -OutputPath \Test\MyOutput.html
Whether to include external (Nuget) packages in the result.
Shorthand: -P
Default: False
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -P
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -IncludePackages
Type of output to produce. Following types are available.
Html
- Creates an html document.Json
- Creates a JSON file.Xml
- Creates a XML file.ConsoleJson
- Writes JSON output to stdoutConsoleXml
- Writes XML output to stdout
When a Console...
type output is specified, the -OutputPath
can be ommitted.
Shorthand: -T
Default: Html
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -T Xml
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder \Test\MyOutput.html -OutputType Json
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -T ConsoleJson
Comma separated list of project file prefixes to include. Wildcards not allowed. Only the filename is considered, case insensitive.
If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.
Shorthand: -IPrN
Default: <empty string>
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IncludeProjectNamespaces MyApp.Extensions,MyApp.Core
- Includes only projects starting with MyApp.Core and projects starting with MyApp.Extensions
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IPrN MyApp.Extensions,MyApp.Core
- Includes only projects starting with MyApp.Core and projects starting with MyApp.Extensions
Comma separated list of project file prefixes to exclude. Wildcards not allowed. Only the filename is considered, case insensitive. This must be a subset of includes to be useful.
If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.
Shorthand: -EPrN
Default: <unspecified>
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -ExcludeProjectNamespaces MyApp.Extensions, MyApp.Helpers
- Excludes projects starting with MyApp.Extensions and projects starting with MyApp.Helpers
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -EPrN MyApp.Extensions, MyApp.Helpers
- Excludes projects starting with MyApp.Extensions and projects starting with MyApp.Helpers
Comma separated list of package name prefixes to include. Wildcards not allowed. Only the package name is considered, case insensitive. If specified, -IncludePackages
is overridden to True
.
If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.
Shorthand: -IPaN
Default: <empty string>
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IncludePackageNamespaces Xamarin,Microsoft
- includes only packages starting with Xamarin and packages starting with Microsoft
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -IPaN Xamarin,Microsoft
- includes only packages starting with Xamarin and packages starting with Microsoft
Comma separated list of package name prefixes to exclude. Wildcards not allowed. Only the filename is considered, case insensitive. If specified, -IncludePackages
is overridden to True
. This must be a subset of includes to be useful.
If you want to include spaces between items, make sure you enclose the parameter value in double quotes.
Shorthand: -EPaN
Default: <unspecified>
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -ExcludePackageNamespaces Microsoft.Logging,Azure
- Excludes packages starting with Microsoft.Logging and packages starting with Azure
DependenSee \Source\SolutionFolder -O ConsoleJson -EPaN Microsoft.Logging,Azure
- Excludes packages starting with Microsoft.Logging and packages starting with Azure
In the output, the full path to project files is used as the unique identifier. So your file structure is exposed in the generated output. It attempts to only use the subdirectory structure, so an attempt is made to hide the full path.
Keep this in mind and inspect the output if you're distributing the outputs from this tool.
- Currently only traverses
csproj
files. No other file types are supported. - No compile results are inspected. Only the project structure is used.