Dependency Management Skill

Safely manage and update project dependencies.

When to Use

• Updating outdated dependencies
• Auditing for security vulnerabilities
• Analyzing dependency compatibility
• Planning major version upgrades
• Reducing dependency bloat

Reference Documents

• Update Strategies - Safe update approaches
• Security Audit - Vulnerability scanning
• Compatibility Matrix - Tracking constraints
• Changelog Analysis - Reading changelogs

Core Workflow

1. Audit Current State

# Node.js
npm outdated
npm audit

# Python
pip list --outdated
pip-audit

# Ruby
bundle outdated
bundle audit

# Go
go list -m -u all
govulncheck ./...

2. Categorize Updates

Category	Risk	Approach
Patch (0.0.x)	Low	Usually safe to batch
Minor (0.x.0)	Medium	Review changelog, test
Major (x.0.0)	High	Plan migration, extensive test
Security	Critical	Prioritize immediately

3. Update Strategy

## Update Plan

### Immediate (Security)
- lodash: 4.17.15 → 4.17.21 (CVE-2021-23337)
- axios: 0.21.0 → 1.6.0 (CVE-2023-45857)

### This Sprint (Patch/Minor)
- jest: 29.5.0 → 29.7.0
- typescript: 5.0.4 → 5.3.0
- prettier: 3.0.0 → 3.1.0

### Planned (Major)
- react: 17.0.2 → 18.2.0 (requires migration)
- webpack: 4.x → 5.x (requires config changes)

4. Safe Update Process

# 1. Create update branch
git checkout -b deps/update-YYYY-MM-DD

# 2. Update one package at a time (for major updates)
npm install package@version

# 3. Run tests
npm test

# 4. Check for breaking changes
npm run build
npm run lint

# 5. Commit if passing
git commit -m "Update package to version"

# 6. Repeat or batch

Risk Assessment

Low Risk Updates

Safe to batch together:

# Update all patch versions
npm update

# Update specific minor versions
npm install package1@^2.1.0 package2@^3.2.0

Medium Risk Updates

Update individually with testing:

## Update: typescript 5.0 → 5.3

### Changelog Review
- New decorator syntax
- Improved type inference
- Breaking: stricter null checks

### Testing Plan
1. Run type checker
2. Run full test suite
3. Build production bundle
4. Test critical flows

### Rollback Plan
```bash
npm install typescript@5.0.4

### High Risk Updates

Require dedicated migration:

```markdown
## Migration: React 17 → 18

### Breaking Changes
- New root API (createRoot)
- Automatic batching
- Strict mode behavior changes

### Migration Steps
1. Update react and react-dom
2. Update to new root API
3. Fix strict mode warnings
4. Update testing library
5. Run full test suite
6. Manual QA of critical flows

### Timeline
- Sprint 1: Core migration
- Sprint 2: Fix deprecation warnings
- Sprint 3: Adopt new features

Security Prioritization

Severity Levels

Level	Response Time	Action
Critical	Immediate	Emergency patch
High	24-48 hours	Priority update
Medium	This sprint	Scheduled update
Low	Next sprint	Normal priority

Vulnerability Response

## CVE Response Checklist

- [ ] Identify affected package and version
- [ ] Check if exploitable in our usage
- [ ] Find patched version
- [ ] Test update locally
- [ ] Deploy to staging
- [ ] Verify fix with security scan
- [ ] Deploy to production
- [ ] Document in security log

Dependency Hygiene

Regular Maintenance

## Weekly
- [ ] Check for security advisories
- [ ] Review critical dependency updates

## Monthly
- [ ] Run full dependency audit
- [ ] Update patch versions
- [ ] Review minor version updates

## Quarterly
- [ ] Plan major version migrations
- [ ] Assess unused dependencies
- [ ] Review dependency size impact

Removing Unused Dependencies

# Node.js - Find unused
npx depcheck

# Python - Find unused
pip-autoremove --list

# Review and remove
npm uninstall unused-package