Compare Versions - npm-check-updates

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23.1.0

[23.1.0] - 2026-08-23

Added new option: `--interactiveSelect`

Usage:

ncu -i --interactiveSelect [value]

Default: auto

Control which upgrades are pre-selected in interactive mode. Only applies with --interactive.

auto	Pre-selects patch and minor upgrades with `--format group`, which is enabled by default, and all upgrades otherwise. This is what `ncu -i` does. (default)
none	Nothing is pre-selected.
patch	Patch upgrades are pre-selected.
minor	Patch and minor upgrades are pre-selected.
all	All upgrades are pre-selected, including major.

Specify auto explicitly to restore the default when another value is set in your config file.

Major version zero upgrades (e.g. 0.1.0 → 0.2.0) are only pre-selected by all, since anything may change before 1.0.0. Custom groups returned by --groupFunction are likewise only pre-selected by all.

Other Changes

LICENSE: use clean GPL-2.0 by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1979
Strip terminal escape sequences from package and registry text by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1994
Select the pnpm global config by the installed major version by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1995
Do not let rejectOnError:false swallow spawn errors by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1997
Warn when peer dependency lookups fail instead of silently disabling --peer by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1984
Test getModuleMismatchError directly instead of through a real config load by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1998
Further e2e.sh improvements by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1993
Update dependencies by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1992
Wrap option default values in code tags by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2001
Always run the deep test CLI from build by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2000
Reject invalid values in array options by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2002
doctor: pass color through to the package manager spawn by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2003
Fix operator precedence in the invalid filter message by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2004
Replace the github url version tag only in the fragment by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2005
Clean up misleading names and dead code in npm, logging and filterAndReject by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2006
Fix pnpm global and prefix args being spread into single characters by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2007
Apply boolean false from the rc config as --no-
Restrict yaml catalog upgrades to catalog paths by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2009
Only log the merged yarn config when it is not empty by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2010
Fix --no-color being ignored by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2013
Run getOwnerPerDependency at --concurrency by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2017
Fix crash when a dist-tag points to a version missing from the packument by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2011
Fix two rc-config tests that asserted nothing by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2020
Restore CHANGELOG.md and automate release-driven changelog sync by @raineorshine with @Copilot in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2014
Add min-release-age=7 to .npmrc by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2025
Remove the temp working directory created by the build-changelog tests by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2024
Update dependencies by @XhmikosR in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2023
feat(pnpm): read registries from pnpm-workspace.yaml by @smarlhens in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1973
feat: add --interactiveSelect to control pre-selected upgrades by @raineorshine in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/2029

New Contributors

@smarlhens made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1973

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v23.0.2...v23.1.0

22.0.0

[22.0.0] - 2026-04-25

Breaking Changes

--cooldown now falls back to the greatest non-prerelease version rather than skipping the upgrade entirely when the latest version falls within the cooldown window.

This only affects --cooldown (or inferred cooldown from min-release-age/minimumReleaseAge/npmMinimalAgeGate).
This only affects --target latest (which is the default).

⚠️ WARNING

In rare circumstances, it is now possible for ncu --cooldown 10 to install a version that was never published to latest. This is because the npm registry does not store a history of versions published to the latest dist-tag. It is impossible to fall back to an earlier latest version, because there is no record of it. However, we do have a list of all published versions, and it's likely that a boring version like 1.0.1 was published to latest at some point. Versions like 1.0.1-pre.0, 1.0.1-beta, 1.0.1-build.58157394, etc will be ignored, as you would expect.

While npm-check-updates typically takes a conservative approach to version upgrades, following semver exactly and only upgrading to the latest version, falling back to the highest version outside the cooldown window is clearly the more intuitive behavior, and this outweighs the few cases where the results would be undesirable. The discussion in #1556 and the large amount of confusion since the initial release of --cooldown attest to this.

How to opt out of the new behavior

You can opt out of the new behavior by using --target "@latest". This forces a strict upgrade (or downgrade) to the latest tag only, without any fallback behavior.

For granular control, use a custom ncurc function to set the target or disable cooldown for a single package.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v21.0.3...v22.0.0

21.0.0

[21.0.0] - 2026-04-14

⚠️ Breaking Changes

This is a major breaking change with significant architectural updates.

ESM Migration & Module System

Pure ESM: Converted to pure ESM with dual-build support (ESM/CJS) via Vite 8.
Import Syntax: Programmatic usage now requires named imports or namespace imports.
- Old: import ncu from 'npm-check-updates'
- New: import * as ncu from 'npm-check-updates' or import { run } from 'npm-check-updates'
Node.js Requirements: Now requires ^20.19.0 || ^22.12.0 || >=24.0.0. This is required for native require(esm) support and the Rolldown engine.
npm Requirements: Minimum version increased to >=10.0.0.

Configuration Files (`.ncurc.js`)

Files named .ncurc.js that use module.exports will now fail in projects that are not "type": "module".
Fix: Rename these files to .ncurc.cjs or convert them to use export default.

Dependency Updates (Pure ESM versions)

Package	Old Version	New Version
`camelcase`	`^6.3.0`	`^9.0.0`
`chai`	`^4.3.10`	`^6.2.2`
`chai-as-promised`	`^7.1.2`	`^8.0.2`
`find-up`	`5.0.0`	`8.0.0`
`p-map`	`^4.0.0`	`^7.0.4`
`untildify`	`^4.0.0`	`^6.0.0`

Tooling & Build Changes

Vite 8 Upgrade: Migrated to Vite 8 with the new Rust-based Rolldown bundler (10-30x faster builds).
TypeScript 6.0: Adopted latest type-system features and performance improvements.
Strip ANSI: Replaced strip-ansi with Node.js built-in util.stripVTControlCharacters.
Test Runner: Replaced vite-node with tsx for TypeScript support in ESM context.

Migration Guide

If you are upgrading to v21 from earlier versions:

1. Environment Check

Ensure you meet the new Node.js requirement: ^20.19.0 || ^22.12.0 || >=24.0.0.
Update npm to at least 10.0.0.

2. Update Configuration Files

If you have a .ncurc.js file:

Option A: Rename it to .ncurc.cjs.

Option B: Convert it to ESM:

import { defineConfig } from 'npm-check-updates'

export default defineConfig({
  upgrade: true,
  filter: name => name.startsWith('@myorg/'),
})

3. Update Programmatic Usage

If you import npm-check-updates in your scripts:

ESM: Change import ncu from ... to import * as ncu from 'npm-check-updates'.
CommonJS: Ensure you are destructuring the named exports or using the full object:

const ncu = require('npm-check-updates')
// Use ncu.run(...)

Testing

Tests now use tsx for module loading. When running tests manually:

mocha --node-option import=tsx 'test/**/*.test.ts'

Or use the npm script:

npm test

Related Issues & PRs

PR 1649

20.0.0

[20.0.0] - 2026-03-31

Auto Cooldown

The cooldown option is now automatically applied from the respective package manager's config:

npm - min-release-age (#1632)
yarn - npmMinimalAgeGate (excluding npmPreapprovedPackages) (#1643)
pnpm - minimumReleaseAge (excluding minimumReleaseAgeExclude) (#1639)

Why is this a breaking change?

If you use any of the above configs, npm-check-updates will automatically exclude releases that do not exceed the specified minimum age as described in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates#cooldown.
Otherwise, you don't need to do anything.

Other changes

Bump strip-ansi from 7.1.2 to 7.2.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1620
Bump lodash and @types/lodash by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1615
Bump @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin from 8.44.1 to 8.57.2 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1619
Bump hosted-git-info from 9.0.0 to 9.0.2 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1622
Bump glob and markdownlint-cli by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1625
update dependencies; fix vulnerabilities by @onemen in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1630
Potential fix for code scanning alert no. 13: Incomplete string escaping or encoding by @raineorshine in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1640

#New Contributors

@onemen made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1630
@Copilot made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1632

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.6.6...v20.0.0

19.6.5

What's Changed

fix(pnpm): fallback from pnpm.cmd to pnpm on Windows for non-standard installs by @terminalchai in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1606

New Contributors

@terminalchai made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1606

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.6.3...v19.6.5

19.6.3

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.6.2...v19.6.3

19.6.2

What's Changed

fix: fix overwrites pnpm-workspace.yaml and .yarnrc.yml into json by @MKruschke in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1589

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.6.1...v19.6.2

19.6.1

What's Changed

Swap diff service. by @diegocr in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1603

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.6.0...v19.6.1

19.6.0

What's Changed

Display link to compare the changes between package versions (--format diff) by @diegocr in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1602

New Contributors

@diegocr made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1602

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.5.0...v19.6.0

19.5.0

What's Changed

feat(homepage): Add --format homepage option to print homepage.

e.g.

$ ncu --format homepage
...
 mocha                      ^11.7.2  →   ^11.7.5    https://mochajs.org/
 npm-registry-fetch         ^19.0.0  →   ^19.1.1
 prettier                   ^3.6.2  →    ^3.8.1     https://prettier.io
...

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.4.1...v19.5.0

19.4.1

What's Changed

Fixed a small cooldown regression with number types in the ncurc

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.4.0...v19.4.1

19.4.0

What's Changed

feat(cooldown): support cooldown strings like "7d", "12h", "30m" by @aversini in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1598

New Contributors

@aversini made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1598

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.3.2...v19.4.0

19.3.2

What's Changed

docs: close code tag instead of reopening another one by @sod in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1588
fix(tests): resolve EBUSY errors on Windows by retrying directory removal by @Zamiell in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1590

New Contributors

@sod made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1588

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.3.1...v19.3.2

19.3.1

What's Changed

fix(catalog): use the right yarn config name by @MKruschke in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1586

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.3.0...v19.3.1

19.3.0

What's Changed

feat: support yarn catalogs by @MKruschke in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1582
Fixed default catalog behavior.
- See discussion here: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1582#pullrequestreview-3613957102
- If you think this is wrong, please open an issue.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.2.1...v19.3.0

19.2.1

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.2.0...v19.2.1

19.2.0

What's Changed

Add --format dep
Add interactive mode keyboard controls to docs by @jsoref in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1577
Spelling by @jsoref in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1578

New Contributors

@jsoref made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1577

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.1.2...v19.2.0

19.1.2

What's Changed

fix: support singular 'catalog' field in pnpm-workspace.yaml by @afonsojramos in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1572

New Contributors

@afonsojramos made their first contribution in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1572

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.1.1...v19.1.2

19.1.1

What's Changed

fix(cooldown): handle CooldownFunction in config file by @SebastianSedzik in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1565

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.1.0...v19.1.1

19.1.0

What's Changed

feat(cooldown): support for cooldown predicate function by @SebastianSedzik in https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/pull/1563

Full Changelog: https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v19.0.0...v19.1.0

19.0.0

Breaking

node >= 20 required
--workspaces (plural) short option -ws changed to -w
- Better compatibility with commander v13
- Short option should always be a single character for consistency
- Replaces the short option for --workspace (singular)
- --workspace (singular) no longer has a short option.

18.2.0

Thanks to community members for raising awareness and to @SebastianSedzik for the implementation.

See: #1547

Feature: `--cooldown`

Usage:

ncu --cooldown [n]
ncu -c [n]

The cooldown option helps protect against supply chain attacks by requiring package versions to be published at least the given number of days before considering them for upgrade.

Note that previous stable versions will not be suggested. The package will be completely ignored if its latest published version is within the cooldown period. This is due to a limitation of the npm registry, which does not provide a way to query previous stable versions.

Example:

Let's examine how cooldown works with a package that has these versions available:

1.0.0          Released 7 days ago    (initial version)
1.1.0          Released 6 days ago    (minor update)
1.1.1          Released 5 days ago    (patch update)
1.2.0          Released 5 days ago    (minor update)
2.0.0-beta.1   Released 5 days ago    (beta release)
1.2.1          Released 4 days ago    (patch update)
1.3.0          Released 4 days ago    (minor update) [latest]
2.0.0-beta.2   Released 3 days ago    (beta release)
2.0.0-beta.3   Released 2 days ago    (beta release) [beta]

With default target (latest):

$ ncu --cooldown 5

No update will be suggested because:

Latest version (1.3.0) is only 4 days old.
Cooldown requires versions to be at least 5 days old
Use --cooldown 4 or lower to allow this update

With @beta/@tag target:

$ ncu --cooldown 3 --target @beta

No update will be suggested because:

Current beta (2.0.0-beta.3) is only 2 days old
Cooldown requires versions to be at least 3 days old
Use --cooldown 2 or lower to allow this update

With other targets:

$ ncu --cooldown 5 --target greatest|newest|minor|patch|semver

Each target will select the best version that is at least 5 days old:

greatest → 1.2.0        (highest version number outside cooldown)
newest   → 2.0.0-beta.1 (most recently published version outside cooldown)
minor    → 1.2.0        (highest minor version outside cooldown)
patch    → 1.1.1        (highest patch version outside cooldown)

Note for latest/tag targets:

:warning: For packages that update frequently (e.g. daily releases), using a long cooldown period (7+ days) with the default --target latest or --target @tag may prevent all updates since new versions will be published before older ones meet the cooldown requirement. Please consider this when setting your cooldown period.

18.0.0

Breaking

The only breaking change in v18 is with the -g/--global flag.

npm-check-updates -g will now auto-detect your package manager based on the execution path. Previously, it defaulted to npm.

yarn dlx ncu -g --packageManager yarn → yarn dlx ncu -g
pnpm dlx ncu --global --packageManager pnpm → pnpm dlx ncu -g
bunx ncu -g--packageManager pnpm → bunx ncu -g

If for some reason you were running ncu -g with an alternative package manager and relying on it checking the global npm packages, you will need to now explicitly specify npm:

ncu -g → ncu -g--packageManager npm

Thanks to @LuisFerLCC for the improvement (#1514).

17.0.0

Breaking

Require node >= 18.18.0
Deprecated versions are no longer excluded by default, as it requires fetching package info for every published version, significantly slowing down upgrades.
- You can opt in with --no-deprecated in the CLI or deprecated: false in your ncurc config.
In workspaces mode, --root is now set by default (#1353)
- To not check the root package.json, use --no-root.
If you have a packageManager field in your package.json, it is now upgraded by default (#1390)
- Use --dep prod,dev,optional for the old behavior.

16.14.0

bun

Feature

Added experimental support for bun package manager.
Automatically used if bun.lockb is detected.
Assistance needed to test it out on different platforms.

$ ncu --packageManager bun
$ ncu -p bun

Thanks to @ImBIOS for the PR!

16.13.0

Feature

Added --install option to control auto-install behavior.

Usage:

ncu --install [value]

Default: prompt

Control the auto-install behavior.

always	Runs your package manager's install command automatically after upgrading.
never	Does not install and does not prompt.
prompt	Shows a message after upgrading that recommends an install, but does not install. In interactive mode, prompts for install. (default)

16.10.0

Feature

Added filterResults option to filter out upgrades based on a user provided function.

filterResults runs after new versions are fetched, in contrast to filter and filterVersion, which run before. This allows you to filter out upgrades with filterResults based on how the version has changed (e.g. a major version change).

Only available in .ncurc.js or when importing npm-check-updates as a module.

/** Filter out non-major version updates.
  @param {string} packageName               The name of the dependency.
  @param {string} currentVersion            Current version declaration (may be range).
  @param {SemVer[]} currentVersionSemver    Current version declaration in semantic versioning format (may be range).
  @param {string} upgradedVersion           Upgraded version.
  @param {SemVer} upgradedVersionSemver     Upgraded version in semantic versioning format.
  @returns {boolean}                        Return true if the upgrade should be kept, otherwise it will be ignored.
*/
filterResults: (packageName, {currentVersion, currentVersionSemver, upgradedVersion, upgradedVersionSemver}) => {
  const currentMajorVersion = currentVersionSemver?.[0]?.major
  const upgradedMajorVersion = upgradedVersionSemver?.major
  if (currentMajorVersion && upgradedMajorVersion) {
    return currentMajorVersion < upgradedMajorVersion
  }
  return true
}

For the SemVer type definition, see: https://git.coolaj86.com/coolaj86/semver-utils.js#semverutils-parse-semverstring

Thanks to mslowiak for this enhancement!

16.8.0

Feature

Added --format lines

$ ncu --format lines
@ava/typescript@^4.0.0
ava@^5.2.0
eslint@^8.36.0
lerna@^6.5.1
typescript@^5.0.2

This is particularly useful for upgrading global modules:

npm install -g $(ncu -g --format lines)

Thanks to @vanodevium for the PR!

16.4.0

Feature

Added --cacheClear option for—you guessed it—clearing the cache 🫥.

This brings the suite of cache-related options to:

--cache : Cache versions to the cache file.
--cacheClear : Clear the default cache, or the cache file specified by --cacheFile.
--cacheExpiration <min> : Cache expiration in minutes (default: 10).
--cacheFile <path> : Filepath for the cache file (default: "~/.ncu-cache.json").

Thanks to @ly3xqhl8g9 whose code is gratefully more lucid than his username.

16.3.0

Feature

Added workspace support! 🚢

Upgrade all workspaces:

ncu --workspaces
ncu -ws

Upgrade a single workspace:

ncu --workspace a
ncu -w a

Upgrade more than one workspace:

ncu --workspace a --workspace b
ncu -w a -w b

Upgrade all workspaces AND the root project:

ncu --workspaces --root

Upgrade a single workspace AND the root project:

ncu --workspace a --root

Notes

If workspaces or --workspace is run in --interactive mode, ncu will prompt to npm install once in the root project rather than separately in each workspace (#1182).
Running --deep will not trigger workspace support.

16.0.0

Breaking

Automatic detection of package data on stdin has been removed. This feature was deprecated in v14.0.0. Add --stdin for old behavior. (#136)
Wild card filters now apply to scoped packages. Previously, ncu -f '*vite*' would not include @vitejs/plugin-react. Now, filters will match any part of the package name, including the scope. Use a more specific glob or regex expression for old behavior. (#1168)

15.0.0

Breaking

node >= 14.14 is now required (#1145)
- Needed to upgrade update-notifier with has a moderate severity vulnerability
yarn autodetect has been improved (#1148)
- This is a patch, though technically it is breaking. In the obscure case where --packageManager is not given, there is no package-lock.json in the current folder, and there is a yarn.lock in an ancestor directory, npm-check-updates will now use yarn.
- More practically, if you needed to specify --packageManager yarn explicitly before, you may not have to now

14.1.0

Features

Group

You can now group upgrades by risk level using --format group:

Interactive Mode

Interactive mode was completely rewritten for a better user experience.

Inspired by npm-check.

Combine with --format group for a truly luxe experience:

Static Registry

A new option --packageManager staticRegistry allows upgrades to be recommended from a static JSON file. This can be used to power custom versioning infrastructure that is completely independent from the npm registry.

Thanks to agrouse who did a fine job on the PR.

Example:

$ ncu --packageManager staticRegistry --registry ./my-registry.json

my-registry.json:

{
  "prettier": "2.7.0",
  "typescript": "4.7.0"
}

The latest versions of prettier and typescript are set in the registry file. When ncu is run, it will recommend upgrades from the static registry file without touching the npm registry:

$ ncu --packageManager staticRegistry --registry ./my-registry.json
Checking /Users/raine/projects/ncu-issues/14.1.0/package.json
[====================] 2/2 100%

 prettier    ^2.0.1  →  ^2.7.0
 typescript  ^3.4.0  →  ^4.7.0

Run ncu -u to upgrade package.json

14.0.0

Breaking

Prerelease versions are now "upgraded" to versions with a different preid.

For example, if you have a dependency at 1.3.3-next.1 and the version fetched by ncu is 1.2.3-dev.2, ncu will suggest an "upgrade" to 1.2.3-dev.2. This is because prerelease versions with different preids are incomparable. Since they are incomparable, ncu now assumes the fetched version is desired.

Since this change affects only prereleases, there is no impact on default ncu usage that fetches the latest version. With --pre or --target newest or --target greatest, this change could affect which version is suggested if versions with different preids are published. The change was made to support the new --target @[tag] feature.

If you have a use case where this change is not what is desired, please report an issue. The intention is for zero disruption to current usage.

Features

You can now upgrade to a specific tag, e.g. --target @next. Thanks to IMalyugin.

Deprecated

Default stdin handling is deprecated. Please explicitly add the --stdin option when reading package data from stdin.

13.0.0

Breaking

node >= 14 is now required
Several options which have long been deprecated have been removed:
- --greatest - Instead use --target greatest
- --newest - Instead use --target newest
- --ownerChanged - Instead use --format ownerChanged
- --semverLevel - Renamed to --target

12.2.0

Added --retry <n> option to automatically retried failed requests for package information. Defaults to 3 retries.

Hopefully this relieves the frustrating situation of having npm-check-updates fail at the end of a long upgrade! You can control the number of retries with --retry <n>, including setting it to 0 for no retries (the previous behavior).

12.0.0

Breaking

node >= 12 is required. Time to upgrade that old-ass server you never touch.
peerDependencies are now excluded by default. Peer dependencies should use the lowest possible version that works. The old behavior encouraged a bad practice of uprading peer dependencies. You can use --dep prod,dev,bundle,optional,peer for the old behavior (#951).
Dependencies with > will be converted to >=. The old behavior was causing upgrades to > [latest] which was impossible (#957).

Other

Typescript! There is a new build process, so if you have any issues with the executable or types, please report. It should be a non-breaking change if I did it correctly (#888).
When using npm-check-updates as a module, vm (versionmanager) is no longer exported. It was previously exposed for testing purposes, but was never part of the official API.

11.5.0

Minor

npm-check-updates will now auto-detect yarn and apply --packageManager yarn when yarn.lock is present and package-lock.json is not present. You can override this by explicitly setting --packageManager npm. It will print "Using yarn" when the auto-detection is triggered.

11.4.0

Minor

Use --peer to check peer dependencies of installed packages and filter updates to compatible versions.
- 791aa22 Respect peer dependencies (#869)
Bump mem (minor)

Patch

696168b --deep: Fix Windows path
Bump dependencies (patch)

11.2.0

Wildcards and globs can now be used in filters without having to use regex:

ncu react-*      # upgrade packages that start with "react-"
ncu \!commander  # upgrade everything except "commander"

Since special characters are not allowed in package names, this change shouldn't break anything, but please let me know if a filter that was working before v11.2.0 is not now!

Commits

ee27448 Add filter support for wildcards and glob expressions. Fixes #219.

11.0.0

Breaking

--packageFile - Now interprets its argument as a glob pattern. It is possible that a previously supplied argument may be interepreted differently now (though I'm not aware of specific instances). Due to our conservative release policy we are releasing as a major version upgrade and allowing developers to assess for themselves.

Features

--deep - Run recursively in current working directory. Alias of --packageFile '**/package.json'.

See: #785

https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v10.3.1...v11.0.0

10.0.0

[10.0.0] - 2020-11-08

Breaking

Specifiying both the --filter option and argument filters will now throw an error. Use one or the other. Previously the arguments would override the --filter option, which made for a confusing result when accidentally not quoting the option in the shell. This change is only breaking for those who are relying on the incorrect behavior of argument filters overriding --filter.

See: #759

https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v9.2.4...v10.0.0

9.0.0

[9.0.0] - 2020-09-10

Breaking

Versions marked as deprecated in npm are now ignored by default. If the latest version is deprecated, the highest non-deprecated version will be suggested. Use --deprecated to include deprecated versions (old behavior).

https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v8.1.1...v9.0.0

8.0.0

Breaking

--semverLevel major is now --target minor. --semverLevel minor is now --target patch. This change was made to provide more intuitive semantics for --semverLevel (now --target). Most people assumed it meant the inclusive upper bound, so now it reflects that. a2111f4c2
Programmatic usage: run now defaults to silent: true instead of loglevel: 'silent, unless loglevel is explicitly specified. If you overrode silent or loglevel, this may affect the logging behavior. 423e024

Deprecated

Options that controlled the target version (upper bound) of upgrades have been consolidated under --target. The old options are aliased with a deprecation warning and will be removed in the next major version. No functionality has been removed.

--greatest: Renamed to --target greatest
--newest: Renamed to --target newest
--semverLevel: Renamed to --target

See: 7eca5bf3

Features

Doctor Mode

#722

Usage: ncu --doctor [-u] [options]

Iteratively installs upgrades and runs tests to identify breaking upgrades. Add -u to execute (modifies your package file, lock file, and node_modules).

To be more precise:

Runs npm install and npm test to ensure tests are currently passing.
Runs ncu -u to optimistically upgrade all dependencies.
If tests pass, hurray!
If tests fail, restores package file and lock file.
For each dependency, install upgrade and run tests.
When the breaking upgrade is found, saves partially upgraded package.json (not including the breaking upgrade) and exits.

Example:

$ ncu --doctor -u
npm install
npm run test
ncu -u
npm install
npm run test
Failing tests found:
/projects/myproject/test.js:13
  throw new Error('Test failed!')
  ^
Now let's identify the culprit, shall we?
Restoring package.json
Restoring package-lock.json
npm install
npm install --no-save react@16.0.0
npm run test
  ✓ react 15.0.0 → 16.0.0
npm install --no-save react-redux@7.0.0
npm run test
  ✗ react-redux 6.0.0 → 7.0.0
Saving partially upgraded package.json

Github URLs

Added support for GitHub URLs.

See: f0aa792a4

Example:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "chalk": "https://github.com/chalk/chalk#v2.0.0"
  }
}

npm aliases

Added support for npm aliases.

See: 0f6f35c

Example:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "request": "npm:postman-request@2.88.1-postman.16"
  }
}

Owner Changed

#621

Usage: ncu --ownerChanged

Check if the npm user that published the package has changed between current and upgraded version.

Output values:

Owner changed: *owner changed*
Owner has not changed: no output
Owner information not available: *unknown*

Example:

$ ncu --ownerChanged
Checking /tmp/package.json
[====================] 1/1 100%

 mocha  ^7.1.0  →  ^8.1.3  *owner changed*

Run ncu -u to upgrade package.json

Commits

https://github.com/raineorshine/npm-check-updates/compare/v7.1.1...v8.0.0

7.0.0

Breaking

Removed bower support (4e4b47fd3bb567435b456906d0106ef442bf46fe)

Patch

Fix use of "<" with single digit versions (f04d00e550ce606893bee77b78ef2a0b2a50246a)

Other

Change eslint configuration
Update dependencies
Replace cint methods with native methods
Add CI via GitHub Actions workflow

6.0.0

Breaking

--semverLevel now supports version ranges. This is a breaking change since version ranges are no longer ignored by --semverLevel, which may result in some dependencies having new suggested updates.

If you are not using --semverLevel, NO CHANGE! 😅

5.0.0

Breaking*

~~node >= 8~~ node >= 10.17

Bump minimum node version to v10.17.0 due to move-file #651

*If ncu was working for you on v4.x, then v5.0.0 will still work. Just doing a major version bump since ncu's officially supported node version is changing. v4 should be patched to be compatible with node v8, but I'll hold off unless someone requests it.

4.1.0

Feature

Added --concurrency to set the maximum number of concurrent HTTP requests to the npm registry (default: 8).

Fix

Pass --timeout correctly to pacote so that process is properly terminated when timeout is exceeded.

4.0.0

ncu v3 excluded prerelease versions (-alpha, -beta, etc) from the remote by default, as publishing prerelease versions to latest is unconventional and not recommended. Prereleases versions can be included by specifying --pre (and is implied in options --greatest and --newest).

However, when you are already specifying a prerelease version in your package.json dependencies, then clearly you want ncu to find newer prerelease versions. This is now default in v4, albeit with the conservative approach of sticking to the latest tag.

Migration

No effect for most users.

If a prerelease version is published on the latest tag, and you specify a prerelease version in your package.json, ncu will now suggest upgrades for it.

If a prerelease version is published on a different tag, there is no change from ncu v3; you will still need --pre, --greatest, or --newest to get prerelease upgrades.

3.2.0

Added --engines-node option to include only packages that satisfy engines.node as specified in the package file.

See unit tests for detailed behavior.

3.0.0

Breaking changes

node < 8 deprecated

The required node version has been updated to allow the use of newer Javascript features and reduce maintenance efforts for old versions.

System npm used

In ncu v2, an internally packaged npm was used for version lookups. When this became out-of-date and differed considerably from the system npm problems would occur. In ncu v3, the system-installed npm will be used for all lookups. This comes with the maintenance cost of needing to upgrade ncu whenever the output format of npm changes.

Installed modules ignored

In ncu v2, out-of-date dependencies in package.json that were installed up-to-date (e.g. ^1.0.0 specified and 1.0.1 installed) were ignored by ncu. Installed modules are now completely ignored and ncu only consider your package.json. This change was made to better match users’ expectations.

Existing version ranges that satisfy latest are ignored (-a by default)

In ncu v2, if you had ^1.0.0 in your package.json, a newly released 1.0.1 would be ignored by ncu. The logic was that ^1.0.0 is a range that includes 1.0.1, so you don’t really need to change the version specified in your package.json, you just need to run npm update. While logical, that turned out to be quite confusing to users. In ncu v3, the package.json will always be upgraded if there is a newer version (same as -a in v2). The old default behavior is available via the --minimal option.

Prerelease versions ignored

In ncu v2, any version published to the latest tag was assumed to be a stable release version. In practice, occasional package authors would accidentally or unconventionally publish -alpha, -beta, and -rc versions to the latest tag. While I still consider this a bad practice, ncu v3 now ignores these prerelease versions by default to better match users’ expectations. The old behavior is available via the --pre 1 option. (When --newest or --greatest are set, --pre 1 is set by default, and can be disabled with --pre 0).

Options changed: `-m`, `--prod`, `--dev`, `--peer`

In order to only target one or more dependency sections, ncu now uses the --dep option instead of separate options for each section.

--prod is now --dep prod --dev is now --dep dev --dev --peer is now --dep dev,peer etc

The --packageManager alias has changed from -m to -p to make room for --minimal as -m.

2.12.0

Added --peer option to check peerDependencies.

Fixes https://github.com/tjunnone/npm-check-updates/issues/80#issuecomment-309539319

2.11.2

Maintain 0.12.x compatibility; do not use Object.assign.

PR #353

2.11.1

Changed hard-to-read blue to cyan.

Fixes #346.

2.11.0

Added --timeout <ms> option.

PR #339, fixes #290

2.10.5

PATCH: Allow multiple instances of ncu to be run programmatically.

PR #336, fixes #328.

2.10.4

Fixes #329 with PR #332.

2.3.2

Fix wording in update message to be package manager agnostics (#145).

2.3.1

Do not crash when installed package is undefined (#148).

2.3.0

Added bower support (#43).

2.2.1

Fixed #128

2.2.0

Add --packageFile option to specify alternative package.json

2.1.0

Add -o/--optional to check only optionalDependencies

2.0.0

v2 has a few important differences from v1:

Newer published versions that satisfy the specified range are not upgraded by default (e.g. 1.0.0 to 1.1.0). This change was made because npm update handles upgrades within the satisfied range just fine, and npm-check-updates is primarily intended to provide functionality not otherwise provided by npm itself. These satisfied dependencies will still be shown when you run npm-check-updates, albeit with a short explanation. For the old behavior, add the -ua/--upgradeAll option.
The command-line argument now specifies a package name filter (e.g. ncu /^gulp-/). For the old behavior (specifying an alternative package.json), pipe the package.json through stdin.
Use the easier-to-type ncu instead of npm-check-updates. npm-check-updates is preserved for backwards-compatibility.

Changelog

Allow packageData to be specified as an option
Colored table output
Add -a/--upgradeAll
Add -e/--error-level option
Add -j/--json and --jsonFlat flags for json output
Add -r/--registry option for specifying third-party npm registry
Add -t/--greatest option to search for the highest versions instead of the default latest stable versions.
Remove -f/--filter option and move to command-line argument
Replace < and <= with ^
Automatically look for the closest descendant package.json if not found in current directory
Add ncu alias
Export functionality to allow for programmatic use
Bug fixes and refactoring
Full unit test coverage!

1.5.1

Fix bug where package names got truncated (grunt-concurrent -> grunt)

Compare Versions - npm-check-updates

[23.1.0] - 2026-08-23

Added new option: --interactiveSelect

Other Changes

New Contributors

[22.0.0] - 2026-04-25

Breaking Changes

⚠️ WARNING

How to opt out of the new behavior

[21.0.0] - 2026-04-14

⚠️ Breaking Changes

ESM Migration & Module System

Configuration Files (.ncurc.js)

Dependency Updates (Pure ESM versions)

Tooling & Build Changes

Migration Guide

1. Environment Check

2. Update Configuration Files

3. Update Programmatic Usage

Testing

Related Issues & PRs

[20.0.0] - 2026-03-31

Auto Cooldown

Other changes

#New Contributors

What's Changed

New Contributors

What's Changed

What's Changed

What's Changed

New Contributors

What's Changed

What's Changed

What's Changed

New Contributors

What's Changed

New Contributors

What's Changed

What's Changed

What's Changed

New Contributors

What's Changed

New Contributors

What's Changed

What's Changed

Breaking

Feature: --cooldown

Breaking

Breaking

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Notes

Breaking

Breaking

Features

Group

Interactive Mode

Static Registry

Breaking

Features

Deprecated

Breaking

Breaking

Other

Minor

Minor

Patch

Commits

Breaking

Features

[10.0.0] - 2020-11-08

Breaking

[9.0.0] - 2020-09-10

Breaking

Breaking

Deprecated

Added new option: `--interactiveSelect`

Configuration Files (`.ncurc.js`)

Feature: `--cooldown`

Options changed: `-m`, `--prod`, `--dev`, `--peer`