Dependency Auditor

Instructions

When auditing dependencies:

1. Run security audit
2. Check for outdated packages
3. Find unused dependencies
4. Analyze bundle size impact
5. Review and update

Security Audit

# NPM audit
npm audit

# Get JSON output for processing
npm audit --json

# Fix automatically (safe fixes only)
npm audit fix

# Force fix (may have breaking changes)
npm audit fix --force

# PNPM
pnpm audit

# Yarn
yarn audit

Check Outdated Packages

# NPM
npm outdated

# Interactive update
npx npm-check-updates -i

# Update all to latest
npx npm-check-updates -u
npm install

# Check specific package
npm view <package> versions

Find Unused Dependencies

# Using depcheck
npx depcheck

# With details
npx depcheck --detailed

# Ignore patterns
npx depcheck --ignores="@types/*,eslint-*"

Common False Positives

Depcheck may flag these as unused when they’re actually needed:

• @types/* packages (used by TypeScript)
• ESLint/Prettier plugins (referenced in config)
• PostCSS plugins (referenced in config)
• Next.js plugins
• Babel presets

Analyze Bundle Size

# For Next.js
npx @next/bundle-analyzer

# General purpose
npx source-map-explorer dist/**/*.js

# Check package size before installing
npx package-phobia <package-name>

# Compare alternatives
npx bundlephobia-cli compare lodash ramda

Dependency Review Checklist

Security

• No critical/high vulnerabilities
• Dependencies actively maintained
• No known malicious packages
• Lock file committed

Freshness

• No major version behind (unless intentional)
• Security patches applied
• Deprecated packages replaced

Cleanliness

• No unused dependencies
• No duplicate packages (check lock file)
• devDependencies vs dependencies correct

Update Strategies

Conservative (Recommended)

# Update patch versions only
npm update

# Update specific package
npm install package@latest

Aggressive

# Update everything
npx npm-check-updates -u
npm install
npm test

Interactive

npx npm-check-updates -i

# Options:
# a - update all
# space - toggle selection
# enter - apply selected

Package.json Cleanup

{
  "dependencies": {
    // Runtime dependencies only
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    // Build/test tools only
  },
  "peerDependencies": {
    // For libraries only
  },
  "optionalDependencies": {
    // Platform-specific (rare)
  }
}

Lock File Best Practices

1. Always commit lock files (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock)
2. Use npm ci in CI/CD (not npm install)
3. Regenerate if corrupted: delete lock file + node_modules, reinstall
4. Single lock file per project (don’t mix package managers)

Automated Monitoring

# .github/dependabot.yml
version: 2
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: "npm"
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "weekly"
    open-pull-requests-limit: 10
    groups:
      dev-dependencies:
        dependency-type: "development"