---
id: pytest-deadfixtures
version: "3.1.0"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: aging
---

# pytest-deadfixtures — A simple plugin to list unused fixtures in pytest

License: permissive · Maintenance: aging · Downloads: 1.0M/mo

## What it is and what it does

pytest-deadfixtures is a pytest plugin that analyzes your test suite to report fixtures that are never used and fixtures that may be duplicated. It runs as a separate pytest invocation with command-line flags and does not execute your tests during analysis, making it suitable for CI pipelines when run after the main test suite.

The plugin offers three main features: listing unused fixtures with their location and docstring, identifying potentially duplicate fixtures by comparing return values, and ignoring specific fixtures via a @deadfixtures_ignore decorator. It's designed as a code-quality tool to help maintain lean test suites by surfacing fixture debt.

Use it for:

- Audit an existing test suite to find fixtures defined but never referenced by any test.
- Detect duplicate fixture definitions that provide the same test data or setup, reducing maintenance burden.
- Integrate into CI to enforce fixture hygiene by running --dead-fixtures after the main test suite passes.
- Mark intentionally unused fixtures with @deadfixtures_ignore to exclude them from reports without removing them.
- Review fixture usage patterns with verbose output to understand which fixtures are actually exercised.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

A pytest plugin that identifies unused and duplicated fixtures in your test suite, helping you clean up test code and catch redundant fixture definitions.

Yes, if you maintain a pytest suite and want to identify fixture bloat. The plugin is stable, has no security vulnerabilities, and low install friction. The aging maintenance status (211 days since last release) is a minor concern but not a blocker—the package is not archived and works with modern Python versions. Use it as a periodic audit tool rather than a blocking CI gate.

## Install

pip install pytest-deadfixtures
uv add pytest-deadfixtures
poetry add pytest-deadfixtures

## Installing pytest-deadfixtures

Before you install: Low install friction with a single runtime dependency on pytest. Maintenance status is aging—last release was 211 days ago—but the repository is not archived and the package is marked Production/Stable.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive; you can use this package freely in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install pytest-deadfixtures

# In your test directory, run:
pytest --dead-fixtures

# To find duplicates:
pytest --dup-fixtures

Verify before relying:

- Whether the aging maintenance status (211 days since last release) affects compatibility with the latest pytest versions.
- How the duplicate detection handles fixtures with falsy return values, beyond the documented skip behavior.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: aging
- Downloads: 1.0M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

pytest unused fixtures, find dead fixtures, duplicate fixtures detection, pytest fixture cleanup, test fixture analysis, pytest code quality, fixture linting, pytest-plugin, test-quality, fixture-analysis

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/pytest-deadfixtures) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/pytest-deadfixtures/)