create a custom schematic to do things like cleaning up unused imports in a web application

Question

You can cleanup this by using TypeScript, ESLint, or Angular CLI’s custom schematics for automation.

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Option 1: Use ESLint for Cleanup (Recommended)

This is the best practical way to clean unused imports:

1. Install ESLint (if not already installed):

ng add @angular-eslint/schematics

2. Add the rule to remove unused imports:

In your .eslintrc.json:

"rules": {
  "@typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars": ["warn", { "argsIgnorePattern": "^_" }],
  "no-unused-imports": "warn"
}

If no-unused-imports is not available, install this plugin:

npm install eslint-plugin-unused-imports --save-dev

Then update .eslintrc.json:

"plugins": ["unused-imports"],
"rules": {
  "unused-imports/no-unused-imports": "warn",
  "unused-imports/no-unused-vars": [
    "warn",
    { "vars": "all", "varsIgnorePattern": "^_", "args": "after-used", "argsIgnorePattern": "^_" }
  ]
}

Then run:

npx eslint . --fix

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Option 2: Create a Custom Schematic

If you really want to create your own schematic (e.g. cleanup-unused-imports), here's how:

1. Create a custom schematic workspace:

npm install -g @angular-devkit/schematics-cli
schematics blank --name=cleanup-unused-imports
cd cleanup-unused-imports

2. Update src/cleanup-unused-imports/index.ts to do cleanup

Writing AST-based code to remove unused imports is complex — better handled by ESLint or ts-morph.

If you're sure, you'd use ts-morph to parse files and remove unused imports.

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3. Test your schematic

npm link
ng g cleanup-unused-imports

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Summary

Goal	Best Tool
Remove unused imports	ESLint with --fix
Create Angular schematic	Use @angular-devkit/schematics-cli
Clean with AST	Use ts-morph (advanced)

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