majiayu000 Up To Date
Rule
Before writing ANY code that touches an external package or API, fetch the real documentation first. Never rely on training data — it is stale by definition.
When This Triggers
- Installing a package (
npm install,pip install,brew install) - Importing or using any third-party library
- Calling any external API (REST, GraphQL, SDK methods)
- Modifying existing integration code
- Debugging API calls that silently fail
Mandatory Steps
1. Check Version
# What's installed?
cat node_modules/<pkg>/package.json | grep '"version"'
# or: pip show <pkg> | grep Version
# What's latest?
npm info <pkg> version
# or: pip index versions <pkg>
Update if more than 1 major version behind.
2. Fetch Real Docs (pick one or more)
Context7 (preferred for popular libraries):
resolve-library-id → query-docs with specific endpoint/method question
Browser (fetch_webpage):
Fetch the official API reference page for the specific endpoint or method being used
DeepWiki (if available):
Fetch from deepwiki.com for GitHub-based packages
Do NOT skip this step. Do NOT write integration code from memory.
3. Compare Code vs Docs
Check for mismatches:
- Parameters code sends vs parameters docs accept
- Endpoint paths code hits vs current paths
- Response shape code expects vs current shape
- Required vs optional fields
- Removed or renamed parameters
4. After Changes
- Remove deprecated env vars and parameters
- Update all call sites
- Build to verify types
- Test live and verify the actual downstream effect — don't just check the HTTP status code. Confirm the resource appears where expected (dashboard, database, UI). A 200 with a valid-looking response body can still mean nothing happened.
Why This Matters
Real incident: Resend deprecated Audiences and replaced them with Segments. contacts.create() without a segments parameter still returned 200 and a valid contact object — but the contact was a global orphan invisible in the dashboard. First fix removed audienceId (training data said it was gone). Second fix added segments: [{ id }] after fetching real docs. The 200 OK trap delayed discovery twice.
Anti-Patterns
| Pattern | Risk |
|---|---|
| Writing API code from memory | Parameters may not exist anymore |
catch (e) { return { success: true } } |
Hides failures completely |
if (CONFIG) { callAPI() } with no else-log |
Silent skip when config is missing |
| Passing extra params API won't reject | Silently ignored, feature broken |
| Trusting 200 + valid response body = success | Resource may exist but be orphaned/invisible |
| Verifying only the API response, not the dashboard/DB | Missed side effects go undetected |
Bundled Resources
scripts/check_versions.py
Automated version checker for npm and pip packages. Run it to quickly identify outdated dependencies:
# Check a single npm package
python3 scripts/check_versions.py npm resend
# Check all package.json dependencies
python3 scripts/check_versions.py npm --all
# Check a pip package
python3 scripts/check_versions.py pip requests
references/doc-urls.md
Quick-reference table of official API documentation and changelog URLs for 30+ popular packages (email, payments, AI, databases, auth, cloud, analytics, frameworks). Consult this before searching — the correct URL may already be listed.
Related Skills
- dependency-management — use alongside when resolving version conflicts or managing lockfiles
- third-party-integration — use alongside when implementing the actual integration patterns after verifying docs
- api-versioning-strategy — use when designing your own API's versioning, not checking upstream