---

description: Find what depends on a given external dependency or internal target subtask: true

Find reverse dependencies for: $ARGUMENTS

Use the bazel-deps tool with direction: "rdeps" to perform this lookup. It handles label resolution, Bazel queries, and grouping automatically. Pass the dependency name from the arguments as the target.

The target supports ecosystem qualifiers to disambiguate when a name matches both C++ and Rust targets:

• rust:base64 or crate:base64 — resolve as a Rust crate only
• cpp:base64 or cc:base64 — resolve as a C++ target only
• Unqualified names (e.g. base64) use the default resolution order (C++ first, then Rust)

Pass the full argument including any qualifier as the target (e.g. target: "rust:base64").

If the argument includes "deep" or "transitive", pass depth: 2 (or higher) to the tool. Otherwise use the default depth of 1 (direct dependents only). Warn the user that deeper queries are slower.

After receiving the tool output, add any useful observations:

• Is the dependency narrowly or broadly used?
• Are there surprising consumers?
• For C++ deps, are source files using the dependency via deps (public) or implementation_deps (hidden)? You can check this by reading the relevant BUILD.bazel files.
• For dependencies that appear unused, note whether they might be pulled in transitively.