Overview

npm-check-updates is a command-line tool that upgrades your package.json dependencies to the latest versions, ignoring specified version constraints.

It helps you keep your project's dependencies up-to-date, making it easy to manage updates across npm, yarn, pnpm, deno, and bun environments.

example output

Updates are color-coded for clarity:

  • Red: Major upgrade (and all major version zero changes)
  • Cyan: Minor upgrade
  • Green: Patch upgrade

Key Features

  • Maintains SemVer: Keeps your existing semantic versioning policies (e.g., ^17.0.2 becomes ^18.3.1).
  • Safe by Default: Only modifies the package.json file. You must run your package manager's install command to update your lock file and installed packages.
  • Highly Customizable: Offers a rich set of options to filter packages, target specific version types, and format output.
  • Cross-Platform: Compatible with npm, yarn, pnpm, deno, and bun.
  • Flexible Usage: Can be used as a CLI tool or as a module in your own scripts.
  • Interactive Mode: Provides an interactive interface to choose which updates to apply.