limbowatch-cli

limbowatch scan finds the dependencies in your project that are affected by security advisories in limbo: published by maintainers on GitHub, often with a fix, but not yet in GitHub's reviewed Advisory Database or OSV. Dependabot, npm audit, pip-audit and OSV-Scanner read those databases, so they don't report these advisories yet. limbo.watch tracks them every day.

Install

pipx install limbowatch-cli==0.1.0a12   # the current alpha; or: uv tool install limbowatch-cli==0.1.0a12

It reads lockfiles with OSV-Scanner 2.7.1, which must be on PATH. Python 3.12 or later.

Use

limbowatch scan .                     # a table per lockfile, what to upgrade, and PASSED or FAILED
limbowatch scan . --fail-on high      # fail only for high and critical findings
limbowatch scan . -o table -o sarif=limbowatch.sarif -o junit=junit.xml -o html=report.html
limbowatch scan --sbom bom.cdx.json -f json
limbowatch inventory .                # what would be checked, and what can't be

web/package-lock.json
  SEVERITY  PACKAGE  INSTALLED  FIXED IN  ADVISORY             CVE
  HIGH      undici   7.30.1     7.30.2    GHSA-mqg3-3v4r-cm32  CVE-2026-116592

To fix: upgrade 1 package
  undici  7.30.1 → 7.30.2  clears 1 advisory  web/package-lock.json:879

FAILED  1 finding at or above low (--fail-on low): 1 high.

Output formats

One scan can write any number of reports: -o FORMAT=FILE, repeated.

Exit codes

In CI

• GitLab: the CI/CD component: Code Quality, a test summary and a report link in every merge request.
• GitHub, Gitea, Forgejo: the action: annotations, SARIF, job summary and outputs.

Both can open and update one issue per finding (--issues gitlab|gitea). Guide: docs/WATCHER.md.

Good to know

• Nothing about your project is sent to limbo.watch: the feed is downloaded whole.
• Dependencies that can't be checked (range-only requirements, git installs, unreadable lockfiles) are listed with the reason, never dropped.
• Ranges are as entered by maintainers and haven't been reviewed; a range that can't be evaluated exactly is reported as "possibly affected".
• It's a head start: once GitHub reviews an advisory, your usual scanner reports it too.

Advisory data: GitHub repository security advisories and the GitHub Advisory Database (CC BY 4.0), via the limbo feed (CC BY 4.0). Code: Apache-2.0.