Introduction

CukeDedup is a fast static analyzer for duplicate, ambiguous, reusable, and unused Cucumber/Gherkin step definitions. It reads project configuration and test code without executing either one.

It supports:

• JavaScript, JSX, TypeScript, and TSX step definitions; experimental, opt-in Cucumber-Ruby support.
• Cucumber.js, Playwright-BDD, Cypress Cucumber, Jest-Cucumber, and Vitest Cucumber Plugin projects.
• Classic .feature files and Gherkin Markdown .feature.md files.
• Terminal, JSON, JSON Lines, HTML, and SARIF reports.
• Thresholds, baselines, changed-file analysis, suppressions, and ignore files.

Why step-definition analysis matters

In a growing Cucumber suite, step definitions accumulate from many contributors over months and years. Exact duplicates, normalized equivalents, copy-paste handlers, ambiguous steps, and dead definitions slip in quietly — until refactoring a step library feels risky and feature files behave unpredictably.

CukeDedup compares every discovered definition — matcher text, normalized forms, and handler structure — and reports eight classes of findings with precise locations and suggested actions.

Analysis, not guesswork

CukeDedup is an analysis tool, not an automatic guarantee of better test quality. Two principles shape its behavior:

1. Nothing is executed. Framework configuration, imported modules, package scripts, matchers, and test code are read statically. Analyzed repository content is untrusted data.
2. Incomplete analysis is reported, not hidden. When evidence is missing, CukeDedup says so instead of treating the gap as a clean result. Machine reports expose incomplete or truncated status, and CI can reject degraded analysis with --fail-on-incomplete.

Where to go next

• Installation — install with Cargo, npm, or from source.
• Quick Start — run your first analysis in under a minute.
• Rules — the eight detection rules and their severities.
• Reports — terminal, JSON, JSONL, HTML, and SARIF output.

CukeDedup is an independent project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Cucumber project or its maintainers. Before version 1.0, configuration and machine-report schemas may change between minor releases — see Safety and limitations.