# A commander Stack Installs 70 Packages, burgee's Family 9. Like for Like, the Family Weighs 2.4× More.

> Part 2 of the dependency-weight method: nine CLI layers, counted. 70 packages from 25 npm accounts against 9 from one, the rows where the nine weigh more, and three unmet gates.

- Canonical: https://ofriperetz.dev/articles/burgee-zero-dependency-cli-stack

---

I maintain burgee, nine CLI packages, and counted them against the stack they replace, one usual package per layer:

```bash
npm i commander chalk ora inquirer string-width cosmiconfig execa signal-exit terminal-link
```

**70 packages, maintained by 25 npm accounts.** burgee's nine install **9 packages from 1 account**.

That is the flattering row. [Part 1](https://ofriperetz.dev/articles/eslint-plugin-dependency-weight) printed the rows against my plugins; same method, same rule here.

## Layer by layer {#layers}

Each incumbent is the first whole package in burgee's own "Replaces" column (the terminal row lists half of ansi-escapes first; with it, 66 packages), so the stack comes from [my design surface, not a neutral sample](https://ofriperetz.dev/articles/i-built-what-i-benchmark-heres-how-i-try-not-to-cheat). Resolved 2026-09-23, one package at a time; KB is 1,024 bytes of files, whole tree included.

| incumbent           | pkgs | KB   | burgee family   | pkgs | KB   |
| ------------------- | ---- | ---- | --------------- | ---- | ---- |
| commander@15.0.0    | 1    | 203  | burgee@0.10.0   | 6    | 1169 |
| chalk@6.0.0         | 1    | 55   | roundel@0.4.3   | 1    | 76   |
| ora@9.4.1           | 17   | 278  | flagstaff@0.3.7 | 5    | 546  |
| inquirer@14.2.2     | 27   | 1002 | caique@0.4.3    | 3    | 302  |
| string-width@8.2.2  | 4    | 36   | linegauge@0.4.4 | 1    | 83   |
| cosmiconfig@10.0.1  | 4    | 1789 | seniority@0.4.3 | 1    | 149  |
| execa@10.0.1        | 18   | 632  | bellpull@0.2.3  | 1    | 96   |
| signal-exit@4.1.0   | 1    | 75   | closeout@0.4.1  | 1    | 100  |
| terminal-link@5.0.0 | 6    | 60   | paratext@0.5.4  | 1    | 91   |

**On bytes, burgee's side is heavier in six of nine layers.** Installed together, the incumbents weigh 3,851 KB; burgee, 1,577. The incumbent trees overlap (79 summed, 70 installed); burgee's overlap completely (20 summed, 9 installed).

## Where that byte gap comes from {#bytes}

Three layers carry it, none cleanly.

- **cosmiconfig is 1,789 KB, and 1,702 of that is js-yaml and its argparse.** seniority parses no YAML: it reads the JSON subset and refuses the rest by name. Against cosmiconfig's own test suite it passes 186 of 243.
- **execa has no graded drop-in.** bellpull's compat row is cross-spawn, not execa.
- **inquirer** is graded through `@inquirer/core` (41 of 41), not `inquirer` itself.

Keep only layers where burgee's drop-in scores what the incumbent scores on [its own suite](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee/blob/7fb62c2/apps/docs/content/docs/compatibility.mdx): commander, chalk, ora, `@inquirer/core@12.0.3`, string-width, signal-exit (not terminal-link: 8 of 10). **28 packages, 662 KB.** burgee still installs all nine (sibling dependencies pull in the other three), 1,577 KB. **Like for like, burgee is 2.4× heavier on disk**, while the count stays 28 against 9, maintainers 14 against one.

## The three gates burgee publishes as not met {#gates}

burgee's [README](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee/blob/7fb62c2/README.md) states nine gates; three fail their ≤ 1.0× target. I re-ran each with burgee's own fixtures:

| gate                                   | published | re-run     |
| -------------------------------------- | --------- | ---------- |
| `burgee` bundle vs cac                 | 2.636×    | 2.661×     |
| `burgee/commander` bundle vs commander | 1.514×    | 1.520×     |
| cold start vs cac                      | 1.443×    | 1.67–2.31× |

The bundle rows agree within a percent. The cold-start re-runs, at load average above 80, read worse than burgee's published figure. Either way, not met. burgee's parity rows compare its bundles against cac, commander or yargs **plus** cosmiconfig, exit-hook and restore-cursor (0.282×, 0.468×, 0.531×). Those stacks include cosmiconfig, which my like-for-like rule excludes.

## What "zero dependencies" means here {#zero-deps}

Six of nine declare no dependencies. burgee, flagstaff and caique depend only on those six: **no dependency outside the family**, which is not zero. burgee's README table says 0 runtime dependencies; the registry lists five, all siblings.

One account is also a [concentration](https://ofriperetz.dev/articles/eslint-plugin-maintenance-signals). Mid-measurement, my pipeline published burgee@0.10.0 at 05:34 UTC, then the closeout and linegauge it requires at 05:39 and 05:42; for eight minutes `npm i burgee` failed with `ETARGET`. And the family declares Node 24, where the incumbent stack's floor is Node 22.18. If you support Node 22.18, the incumbents are your option.

## How to check yours {#method}

Part 1's method, plus bytes and maintainers:

```bash
cd "$(mktemp -d)" && npm init -y >/dev/null
npm i --package-lock-only <your dependencies>
node -e "console.log(Object.keys(require('./package-lock.json').packages).filter(k=>k.startsWith('node_modules/')).length)"
npm ci --ignore-scripts && node -e "let t=0;const f=require('fs'),w=d=>f.readdirSync(d,{withFileTypes:true}).forEach(e=>{const p=d+'/'+e.name;e.isDirectory()?e.name!=='.bin'&&w(p):e.isFile()&&e.name!=='.package-lock.json'&&(t+=f.statSync(p).size)});w('node_modules');console.log(t)"
node -e "const l=require('./package-lock.json').packages,m=new Set(),u=[];Promise.all(Object.keys(l).filter(k=>k.startsWith('node_modules/')).map(k=>fetch('https://registry.npmjs.org/'+k.split('node_modules/').pop().replace('/','%2F')).then(r=>r.ok?r.json():Promise.reject()).then(d=>(d.maintainers||[]).forEach(x=>m.add(x.name))).catch(()=>u.push(k)))).then(()=>console.log(m.size,'unfetched',u.length))"
```

Part 1 subtracted a 69-package ESLint baseline; here the shared baseline is Node, zero packages. pnpm, yarn 1 and bun resolve the same counts. The family ships often and its caret ranges float: pin all nine as tabled, or expect drift.

---

_Run it on your CLI: how many npm accounts can ship code into your tree, and did you know that number before today?_

**[If the method earns a place in your release review, ⭐ [star burgee](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee).](https://github.com/ofri-peretz/burgee)**