Dependencies (deps, dependents)

sprout deps FILE         # what FILE depends on
sprout dependents FILE   # what depends on FILE, tests included

Each line says why the link is there. For Go that’s the names a file actually uses from the other (uses auth.Session, auth.Verify); for other languages, the import that resolved to it.

$ sprout deps app/api/routes/items.py
app/api/routes/items.py depends on 2 files

  app/api/deps.py  imports app.api.deps
  app/models.py    imports app.models

Following more hops

--depth N follows the chain further, -1 all the way. Each file is listed once, at its shortest distance, with the file it was reached through:

$ sprout dependents app/crud.py --depth 2
13 files (7 tests) depend on app/crud.py

  app/api/routes/login.py         imports app.crud
  app/api/routes/users.py         imports app.crud
  app/core/db.py                  imports app.crud
  tests/api/routes/test_login.py  test · imports app.crud
  tests/api/routes/test_users.py  test · imports app.crud
  tests/crud/test_user.py         test · imports app.crud
  tests/utils/item.py             test · imports app.crud
  tests/utils/user.py             test · imports app.crud
  app/api/deps.py                 via app/core/db.py · imports app.core.db
  app/api/main.py                 via app/api/routes/login.py · imports app.api.routes.login
  app/initial_data.py             via app/core/db.py · imports app.core.db
  tests/api/routes/test_items.py  test · via tests/utils/item.py · imports tests.utils.item

Flag	Does
--depth N	Hops to follow (default 1, -1 for all)
--no-tests	Leave test files out
--json	schemaVersion: 1 output for scripts

The project root is the nearest folder above the file with a .git, so the commands work from anywhere in the repository.

What’s a dependency

The same graph behind --entry and --ai:

• Go: imports resolved through every go.mod in the tree, down to the file that declares what’s used.
• TypeScript and JavaScript: relative imports, tsconfig/jsconfig paths and baseUrl (following extends), and packages of the same workspace through their package.json exports.
• Python: imports from the folders Python would search, including apps rooted in a subfolder and src/ layouts; from pkg import module links the module.
• Rust: each crate’s modules from its Cargo.toml, use trees, crate::, self::, super:: and other crates of the workspace.
• Java and Kotlin: imports matched to files under any source root.

How accurate that is gets measured against each language’s own tooling: see Graph accuracy.

A folder named deps or dependents is mapped with ./deps, since the bare word is the command.

Agents get both as the deps and dependents MCP tools.