Mern Deps

Purpose

Manage dependencies safely: audit for vulnerabilities, check for updates, and update with test verification.

Arguments

• --check — Check for outdated packages (default if no args)
• --audit — Run security audit
• --update — Update patch/minor versions with test verification
• --update-major — Show available major updates (requires manual review)

Workflow

Check (--check)

1. Run pnpm outdated
2. Categorize: patch, minor, major
3. Report packages with updates available
4. Flag packages with known issues

Audit (--audit)

1. Run pnpm audit
2. Report vulnerabilities by severity (critical, high, moderate, low)
3. Suggest fixes for critical/high
4. Check for patches available

Update (--update)

1. Show packages to update (patch + minor only)
2. Ask for approval
3. Update packages: pnpm update
4. Run tests: pnpm test
5. Run build: pnpm build
6. If tests pass, commit changes
7. If tests fail, rollback and report

Major updates (--update-major)

1. List packages with major updates
2. Show changelogs/breaking changes (if available)
3. Recommend update order (dependencies first)
4. Do not auto-update — requires manual review

For universal safety rules and update priority order, see /shared-deps-safety.

Output

Check output

Outdated packages:

Patch updates (safe):
  - zod: 3.22.4 → 3.22.5
  - mongoose: 8.0.1 → 8.0.3

Minor updates (usually safe):
  - next: 14.1.0 → 14.2.1
  - @types/node: 20.10.0 → 20.11.0

Major updates (review required):
  - eslint: 8.56.0 → 9.0.0 ⚠️ Breaking changes

Audit output

Security audit:

Critical: 0
High: 1
  - lodash <4.17.21 (Prototype Pollution)
    Fix: pnpm update lodash
Moderate: 2
Low: 3

Run `pnpm audit fix` to auto-fix where possible.

Reference

For update strategies and common issues, see reference/mern-deps-reference.md