upd

Update dependencies across a polyglot repository—locally, safely, and in one command.

Python · Node.js · Rust · Go · Ruby · .NET · Docker · Terraform · GitHub Actions · pre-commit · Mise

upd gives you one reviewable update plan across mixed stacks. It preserves hand-written constraints, comments, and formatting; previews every proposed change before it writes; and runs without a hosted service or repository onboarding.

Try it now

From any directory inside a Git repository:

uvx upd

That first run is a dry run: it reports what would change and leaves every file untouched. No repository onboarding or hosted account is required. Review the plan, then apply it with uvx upd --apply.

_{One preview across four file types. Nothing changes until you pass --apply.}

Install another way · See every supported file · Compare dependency tools

Why upd

• One command for a mixed stack. Check application dependencies, tool versions, container images, GitHub Actions, pre-commit hooks, and Terraform modules in the same run instead of assembling a different updater for each file type.
• Safe on the first run. Dry-run is the default, constraints and formatting are preserved, and major updates are called out before you decide what to apply.
• Local first, automation ready. Start with an interactive terminal review, then use the same CLI, configuration, stable exit codes, JSON/SARIF output, and rolling PR or MR workflows in CI.

upd is a local checker and editor, not a package manager or a hosted update bot. It can delegate lockfile refreshes to the package managers already in your project and can run inside your own GitHub or GitLab automation. See the decision guide and dated benchmarks for an exact comparison with adjacent tools.

Where upd fits

Choose by the job rather than treating every dependency tool as interchangeable:

Dated performance evidence

On the committed 18-reference fixture, the verified 2026-08-28 run recorded:

Lower is better. These are five-run live-network observations, not universal speed claims. Every timed update was first verified to change all intended references and leave a parseable result. See the full matrix, methodology, variance, commands, and raw JSON.

Features

• Multi-ecosystem: Python, Node.js, Rust, Go, Ruby, .NET, Docker, Terraform, GitHub Actions, pre-commit, Mise/asdf
• Dry-run by default: nothing is written without --apply
• Fast: parallel registry requests, with a 24-hour version cache
• Constraint-aware: respects >=2.0,<3 (Python), ~> 7.1 (Ruby), and ^2.0.0 / ~2.0.0 (npm, Cargo)
• Format-preserving: keeps formatting, comments, and structure
• Update filters: --only-bump, --max-bump, --package (exact names or quoted globs such as 'shiny*'), --lang, or approve one by one with -i
• Major warnings: breaking changes are flagged with (MAJOR)
• Pre-release aware: updates pre-releases to newer pre-releases
• Cooldown: hold back releases younger than N days, against supply-chain attacks
• Security auditing: OSV vulnerability scanning with auto-fix and SARIF output
• Check mode: exit 1 if updates are available (for CI and pre-commit)
• Gitignore-aware: honors .gitignore and prunes hidden directories, without missing the dotfiles it updates
• Private registries: authentication for PyPI, npm, Cargo, Go, and GitHub
• Config file: include or exclude paths, ignore packages, and pin versions via .updrc.toml

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install upd

# or with cargo-binstall (faster, pre-built binary)
cargo binstall upd

From PyPI

pip install upd
# or with uv
uv pip install upd

If you installed an earlier release under the old distribution name, migrate once with pip uninstall upd-cli && pip install upd. The upd-cli command remains available as a compatibility alias.

From source

git clone https://github.com/rvben/upd
cd upd
cargo install --path .

Usage

# Preview changes without modifying files (default when no --apply)
upd

# Apply updates to files
upd --apply

# Limit to specific files or directories
upd --apply requirements.txt pyproject.toml

# Approve updates one by one
upd -i

# Only the packages you name
upd -p requests,flask

# Select a package family (quote globs so your shell passes them to upd)
upd --package 'shiny*'

# Cap the bump level (allow patch + minor, skip major). Updates above the
# ceiling are reported as held back, never as up to date, and do not
# change the exit code.
upd --max-bump minor

# Restrict to exactly one level (repeatable, comma-separated)
upd --only-bump major

# One ecosystem at a time: python, node, rust, go, ruby, dot-net,
# docker, terraform, actions, pre-commit, mise, annotated
upd --lang python

# Exit 1 if anything is outdated (for CI and pre-commit)
upd --check

# Regenerate lockfiles after writing
upd --apply --lock

# Print the effective configuration and exit
upd --show-config

upd --help lists every flag; Stability documents the ones that are contractual, and upd schema emits the whole interface as JSON.

--package accepts exact names and case-sensitive globs using *, ?, and character classes such as [ab]. Wildcards can cross namespace separators, so patterns such as '@scope/*' and 'github.com/org/*' work as expected. Quote globs on the command line to prevent shell expansion. A glob that matches no package produces a warning without changing the exit code; use repeated or comma-separated values instead of brace alternation.

Dry-run by default: upd without --apply only previews changes. Pass --apply to write updates. --check, --dry-run, and --interactive do not require --apply.

VCS-root scoping: When no path argument is given, upd scans from the nearest .git ancestor directory rather than the current working directory. This prevents accidental rewrites when CWD is a subdirectory inside a repository.

Commands

upd --version      # Print version
upd self-update    # Check for upd updates
upd clean-cache    # Clear the version cache
upd align          # Align versions across files (--check exits 1 on misalignment)
upd audit          # Scan for known vulnerabilities (exit 6 if found)
upd schema         # Machine-readable interface description

For repositories replacing dependency bots, upd also provides separate reusable GitHub workflows for policy-constrained freshness updates and validated security-remediation pull requests. See GitHub dependency pull requests.

Example Output

.pre-commit-config.yaml:37: Would update pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks v4.6.0 → v6.0.0 (MAJOR)
.github/workflows/ci.yml:16: Would update actions/checkout v4 → v6 (MAJOR)
.github/workflows/ci.yml:18: Would update jdx/mise-action v2 → v4 (MAJOR)
.mise.toml:8: Would update rust 1.91.1 → 1.94.0
Cargo.toml:33: Would update clap 4.5.53 → 4.6.0
Cargo.toml:36: Would update tokio 1.48.0 → 1.50.0

Would update 6 package(s) (2 major, 3 minor, 1 patch) in 4 file(s), 8 up to date

Output includes clickable file:line: locations (recognized by VS Code, iTerm2, and modern terminals).

Version Constraints

upd respects version constraints in your dependency files:

An update moves the lower bound and leaves every other clause where the author wrote it, so >=1.0, <2.0 becomes >=1.5.0, <2.0. A constraint is an unordered set of clauses, so the lower bound is found wherever it sits (<2.0, >=1.0 answers alike), and an upper bound is honored when picking the new version: the release chosen is the newest one the constraint already admits.

npm ranges keep the shape they were written in. A comparator range (">=1.0.0 <2.0.0") and a hyphen range ("4.17.0 - 4.18.0") each keep their ceiling. A wildcard or partial range takes its ceiling from its own floor, like a caret, so it follows the newest release and the whole shape moves with it: "4.3.x" becomes "4.4.x" and "^1.2" becomes "^3.1", never a fully written version. npm lets a comparator stand apart from the version it applies to, and that spacing is part of the shape: ">= 1.2.7 < 1.3.0" is read as the range it is and comes back spaced the same way. npm's tilde has two spellings and "~>1.2.3" means what "~1.2.3" does, ceiling included; each comes back spelled the way it was written.

An npm spec that names no published version is left alone and reported nowhere: "*", a dist-tag ("latest", "next", "beta"), and the workspace:, file:, link:, npm:, git+ssh: and github:owner/repo forms all resolve somewhere other than a release on the registry, so there is no version to compare and nothing an update could move.

Specifier shape changes are opt-in. A [normalize.pyproject] table in .updrc.toml can independently make project dependencies, optional dependencies, or standardized dependency groups use ==, >=, or <=; projects without that table retain the shape-preserving behavior above. See the configuration guide.

Bounds that are not floors

Only an inclusive lower bound names the version a project is on, so only that bound is raised. >1.2.3 names the one version its author refuses, <3 and <=3 are ceilings, != 1.5 is an exclusion, and an OR range ("^1 || ^2") has no single branch to edit. None of them is a floor, so none of them is moved. They are checked against the registry and reported anyway:

The last row is the point of the other two: a dependency nothing looked at must not be counted as up to date, and a constraint that has quietly frozen a dependency should say so rather than pass under a green tick.

Annotated Version Pins

Files without a dependency-manifest format can carry a trailing annotation:

shinyhub_version: "0.11.16"  # upd: pypi shinyhub

Directory walks scan annotations in Makefile, makefile, GNUmakefile, justfile, Justfile, *.mk, *.sh, and *.bash. Any file passed explicitly is scanned as annotated. To add other files to normal repository discovery, use repository-relative globs in .updrc.toml:

include = ["ansible/roles/*/vars/*.yml", "docker-compose.yml"]
exclude = ["**/archive/**"] # exclude wins over include

An include never changes a recognized manifest's parser: for example, a matching main.tf remains Terraform. Use --verbose to diagnose an upd: marker in an otherwise undiscovered UTF-8 text file up to 1 MiB.

A GitHub Actions workflow is the exception: it keeps its Actions updater and is scanned for annotations as well, so a tool version passed to an action through a with: input can be updated beside the uses: refs around it. See GitHub Actions.

Version Precision

By default, upd preserves version precision from the original file:

# Original file has 2-component versions
flask>=2.0        →  flask>=3.1        (not 3.1.5)
django>=4         →  django>=6         (not 6.0.0)

# Original file has 3-component versions
requests>=2.0.0   →  requests>=2.32.5

# GitHub Actions major-only tags
actions/checkout@v3  →  actions/checkout@v4  (not @v4.2.0)

Use --full-precision to always output full semver versions:

upd --full-precision
flask>=2.0        →  flask>=3.1.5
django>=4         →  django>=6.0.0
requests>=2.0.0   →  requests>=2.32.5

Version Alignment

In monorepos or projects with multiple dependency files, the same package might have different versions:

# requirements.txt
requests==2.28.0

# requirements-dev.txt
requests==2.31.0

# services/api/requirements.txt
requests==2.25.0

upd align updates every occurrence to the highest version found:

upd align              # Align all packages to highest version
upd align --dry-run    # Preview changes
upd align --check      # Exit 1 if misalignments (for CI)
upd align --lang python # Align only Python packages

It only aligns within one ecosystem, skips packages with upper bound constraints (e.g. >=2.0,<3.0) to avoid breaking them, and ignores pre-release versions when finding the highest version.

Pre-commit Integration

Add upd to your .pre-commit-config.yaml:

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/rvben/upd-pre-commit
    rev: v0.0.24
    hooks:
      - id: upd-check
        # Optional: only check specific ecosystems
        # args: ['--lang', 'python']

Available hooks:

Both hooks run on pre-push by default. Uses language: python which installs upd from PyPI automatically, so no manual installation is needed.

Documentation

Everything you look up rather than read lives in docs/.

Releases

Vership workflow, publication guarantees, automated integration pins, and safe retry procedures. → docs/releases.md

Supported files

Every file upd discovers, per ecosystem, plus annotated version pins in files it does not otherwise understand. → docs/ecosystems.md

Comparison and benchmarks

A dated feature matrix for related dependency tools, plus workload-based, reproducible benchmarks that avoid ranking unlike operations. → docs/comparison.md

Security auditing

OSV vulnerability scanning, --fix-audit, SARIF output, and CI integration. → docs/audit.md

Security policy

Private vulnerability reporting, supported versions, trust boundaries, and release integrity. → SECURITY.md

Configuration file

.updrc.toml discovery order and every key it accepts. → docs/configuration.md

Cooldown (minimum release age)

Hold back versions published less than N days ago, per ecosystem. → docs/configuration.md#cooldown-minimum-release-age

Caching

Where the 24-hour version cache lives and how to clear or bypass it. → docs/configuration.md#caching

Environment variables

Every variable upd reads, in one table. → docs/configuration.md#environment-variables

Private repositories

Credential detection for PyPI, npm, Cargo, Go, and GitHub, including private indexes declared in pyproject.toml. → docs/private-registries.md

GitHub pull requests

Run any supported dependency updates as one rolling GitHub PR, with immutable Action SHA verification, validation, artifact reporting, and opt-in auto-merge. → docs/github-actions.md

GitLab merge requests

Run scheduled dependency updates as one rolling GitLab MR, with validation, lease-protected branch updates, and explicitly opt-in GitLab-native auto-merge. → docs/gitlab.md

Stability

The stable CLI surface, exit codes, --lock commands, and output guarantees. → docs/stability.md

Development

# Build
make build

# Run tests
make test

# Lint
make lint

# Format
make fmt

# All checks
make check

License

MIT