[CHORE] Remove redundant import checkers: importchecker and unimport

[jonpspri]

Problem

The project currently includes multiple tools that check for unused imports:

1. importchecker (dev group)
2. unimport (lint group)
3. pyflakes (via flake8 - lint group)
4. ruff with F401 rule (lint group)

Tools 1 and 2 are redundant because both pyflakes and ruff already detect unused imports via the F401 rule, which is already enabled in our linting pipeline.

Current Configuration

pyproject.toml

dev = [
    "importchecker",
    # ...
]

lint = [
    "flake8>=7.3.0",      # includes pyflakes F401
    "ruff>=0.13.0",       # includes F401 by default
    "unimport>=1.2.1",    # redundant
    # ...
]

Makefile

importchecker:
	uv run --group=dev importchecker .

unimport:
	uv run --group=lint unimport --check --diff $(TARGET)

Recommendation

Remove both importchecker and unimport from:

1. pyproject.toml dependency groups
2. Makefile targets
3. .pre-commit-config.yaml (if present)
4. GitHub workflows (.github/workflows/*.yml)
5. Any CI/CD pipelines that reference them
6. Documentation mentioning these tools

Benefits

1. Reduced dependencies: Two fewer packages to install and maintain
2. Faster builds: Fewer tools to run during linting
3. Simpler configuration: One canonical source of truth (ruff/pyflakes)
4. Less confusion: Developers won't wonder which tool to use
5. Better performance: Ruff is significantly faster than unimport
6. Cleaner CI: Fewer pipeline steps to maintain

Verification

Ruff already checks for unused imports:

# F401 is enabled by default in ruff
ruff check mcpgateway/ --select=F401

Flake8 also includes this via pyflakes:

# F401 is part of pyflakes, included in flake8
flake8 mcpgateway/ --select=F401

Implementation Checklist

• Remove from pyproject.toml:

  • "importchecker" from dev group
  • "unimport>=1.2.1" from lint group

• Remove from Makefile:

  • importchecker target
  • unimport target
  • Any references in composite targets (e.g., lint, lint-all)

• Check and remove from .pre-commit-config.yaml:

  • Any hooks using unimport
  • Any hooks using importchecker

• Check and remove from GitHub workflows:

  • .github/workflows/*.yml
  • Search for importchecker and unimport references

• Update documentation:

  • Remove mentions from README.md
  • Remove mentions from CONTRIBUTING.md
  • Remove mentions from docs/

• Update uv.lock:

  • Run uv lock after removing dependencies

Search Commands

To find all references:

# Find all references to these tools
grep -r "importchecker" .
grep -r "unimport" . --include="*.yml" --include="*.yaml" --include="*.md"

Related

This is part of the broader effort to consolidate linting tools and reduce redundancy in the development toolchain.

[crivetimihai]

For now I'd keep them as they have different rules

[jonpspri]

Ok. Add it to the "rationalize linters" list -- we have at least 3 linters all looking for unused imports.