🚀 Feature: Rule to flag empty arrays/objects that do nothing

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

Bug Report Checklist

• I have tried restarting my IDE and the issue persists.
• I have pulled the latest main branch of the repository.
• I have searched for related issues and found none that matched my issue.

Overview

Quite a few package entries do nothing if they're an empty array or object. Some top-of-mind examples:

• dependencies/devDependencies/peerDependencies
• files
• scripts

It'd be nice to have a lint rule that reports on them & autofixes them away.

Additional Info

This is similar on the surface to eslint/json#54, in that it's a rule for blank/empty entries. The difference here is that eslint-plugin-package-json is for a specific JSON schema. @eslint/json is general to all JSON.

Putting as status: in discussion for a bit because I suspect this might already exist somewhere else. Maybe one of the equivalents mentioned in #42? This feels like it should exist already...

This issue prompted by seeing a very nice cleanup by @crutchcorn in https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/21818/files#r1873314451. Thanks Corbin! 😄

💖

[chouchouji]

@JoshuaKGoldberg I want to ask a question about this lint rule. If the dependency fled is {}, how to fix it? Should we just remove dependency filed?

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

By "dependency" do you mean dependencies? If so, yes: removing the field is what I'm suggesting.

{
   "name": "my-example",
-  "dependencies": {},
   "version": "0.1.2"
}

Same with devDependencies, peerDependencies, and several other fields.

Them being set to {} doesn't do anything for you or change the meaning of the package.json at all. So it's just a wasted extra line.

[chouchouji]

By "dependency" do you mean dependencies? If so, yes: removing the field is what I'm suggesting.

{
"name": "my-example",

• "dependencies": {},
  "version": "0.1.2"
  }
  Same with devDependencies, peerDependencies, and several other fields.

Them being set to {} doesn't do anything for you or change the meaning of the package.json at all. So it's just a wasted extra line.

Sorry, it is typo. I think I can have a try to complete it. Can you assign this issue to me?

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

I don't use any kind of issue assignment system, go ahead and send a PR. Thanks for offering! 🚀

[chouchouji]

I don't use any kind of issue assignment system, go ahead and send a PR. Thanks for offering! 🚀

Thx

[github-actions]

🎉 This is included in version v0.21.0 🎉

The release is available on:

• GitHub releases
• npm package (@latest dist-tag)

Cheers! 📦🚀