🧟 Dependency Rot Detector

Find abandoned dependencies before they become security nightmares.

A CLI tool that scans your package.json (NPM) or requirements.txt (Python) to detect software rot - dependencies that are abandoned, poorly maintained, or pose supply chain risks.

🤔 The Problem

npm audit and Snyk tell you about known CVEs. They DON'T tell you:

• 📅 A library hasn't been updated in 4 years
• 👤 A package has only 1 maintainer (bus factor risk)
• ⚖️ A dependency uses a deprecated license

This is "Software Rot" - a security bomb waiting to explode. 💣

🚀 Quick Start

# Install globally
npm install -g rot-detector

# Scan your project
rot-detector scan .

# Or use npx (no install)
npx rot-detector scan ./package.json

📊 Example Output

🧟 Dependency Rot Detector
Scanned: ./package.json

┌────────────────────────┬────────┬────────────────┬─────────────┬───────────────┬────────────┐
│ Package                │ Score  │ Last Update    │ Maintainers │ License       │ Status     │
├────────────────────────┼────────┼────────────────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼────────────┤
│ abandoned-lib          │ 🔴 15  │ 4 years ago    │ 1           │ GPL-2.0       │ Critical   │
│ old-but-ok             │ 🟡 65  │ 8 months ago   │ 2           │ MIT           │ Warning    │
│ react                  │ 🟢 95  │ 2 days ago     │ 15          │ MIT           │ Healthy    │
└────────────────────────┴────────┴────────────────┴─────────────┴───────────────┴────────────┘

Summary: 🟢 1 Healthy | 🟡 1 Warning | 🔴 1 Critical

📋 Features

Feature	Description
🔍 NPM + PyPI Support	Scans package.json and requirements.txt
📈 Health Scoring	0-100 score based on freshness, maintainers, license
🎨 Beautiful CLI Output	Color-coded risk indicators
📊 JSON Export	--json flag for CI/CD integration
⚡ GitHub Integration	Optional enhanced repo analysis
🚨 Threshold Checks	Fail builds if score drops below threshold

⚙️ CLI Options

rot-detector scan [path] [options]

Options:
  --json                Output results as JSON
  --threshold <score>   Fail if any dependency scores below threshold
  --github-token <tok>  GitHub token for enhanced repo analysis
  --no-github           Skip GitHub analysis (faster)
  --dev                 Include devDependencies
  -v, --verbose         Verbose output

🏆 Health Score Breakdown

Each dependency is scored 0-100 based on:

Factor	Weight	Scoring
Freshness	40%	< 6 months = 100, > 3 years = 5
Maintainers	30%	5+ = 100, 1 = 40, 0 = 10
License	30%	OSI approved = 100, Unknown = 60

Risk Levels

• 🟢 Healthy (80-100): Well maintained, safe to use
• 🟡 Warning (50-79): Review recommended
• 🔴 Critical (0-49): Replace immediately!

🔧 CI/CD Integration

GitHub Actions

name: Dependency Health Check
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  rot-check:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '18'
      
      - name: Check for dependency rot
        run: npx rot-detector scan --threshold 50

Pre-commit Hook

# .husky/pre-commit
npx rot-detector scan --threshold 60

🛠️ Development

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/notsointresting/rot-detector.git
cd rot-detector

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode
npm run dev -- scan ./sample/package.json

# Build for production
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to:

1. 🐛 Report bugs
2. 💡 Suggest features
3. 🔀 Submit pull requests

📄 License

MIT © notsointresting

---

Made with 🧟 by developers who got burned by abandoned dependencies