deps-audit

Lightweight dependency health checker for Node.js projects. Zero external dependencies.

Scans your package.json and checks every dependency against the npm registry for deprecation notices, staleness, license issues, and funding needs.

Installation

npm install -g deps-audit-cli

Or use directly with npx:

npx deps-audit-cli

Usage

# Audit the current directory
deps-audit

# Audit a specific project
deps-audit ./my-project

# JSON output for CI/CD pipelines
deps-audit --json

# Strict mode (exit code 1 if issues found)
deps-audit --strict

# Production dependencies only
deps-audit --no-dev

# Combine flags
deps-audit --no-dev --strict --json

What It Checks

Check	Issue Level	Description
Deprecated	Error	Package is marked deprecated on npm
Stale (>2 years)	Error	No updates in over 2 years
Aging (>1 year)	Warning	No updates in over 1 year
No license	Error	No license field in package metadata
Copyleft license	Warning	GPL, AGPL, or similar copyleft license
Non-standard license	Warning	License not in common permissive set
Funding	Info	Package has funding/sponsorship info

Output

Terminal (default)

Color-coded report with pass/warn/fail indicators for each dependency, followed by a summary of all issues and warnings.

JSON (--json)

{
  "project": "my-app",
  "scanned": 12,
  "timestamp": "2026-03-10T12:00:00.000Z",
  "results": [
    {
      "name": "express",
      "version": "^4.18.0",
      "deprecated": null,
      "staleness": {
        "status": "ok",
        "lastUpdated": "45 days ago",
        "days": 45
      },
      "license": {
        "status": "ok",
        "identifier": "MIT"
      },
      "funding": null,
      "error": null
    }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "issues": [],
    "warnings": [],
    "hasIssues": false,
    "hasWarnings": false
  }
}

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	No issues (or --strict not set)
1	Issues found (--strict mode only)
2	Fatal error (missing package.json, etc.)

CI/CD Integration

Add to your CI pipeline to catch dependency issues early:

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Audit dependencies
  run: npx deps-audit-cli --strict --json > audit-report.json

# GitLab CI example
audit:
  script:
    - npx deps-audit-cli --strict
  allow_failure: false

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or later
• No external dependencies (uses only Node.js built-in modules)

License

MIT - see LICENSE for details.

Author

AI Hustle Lab / agent20usd

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome at github.com/agent20usd/deps-audit.