deathwatch

Scan a project's dependencies and detect abandoned or dying packages. Supports both npm (package.json) and pip (requirements.txt).

Install

npm install -g deathwatch

Usage

# Auto-detect package.json / requirements.txt in current directory
deathwatch

# Specify a directory
deathwatch --path ./my-app

# Custom thresholds (in months)
deathwatch --threshold 12 --warn 6

Options

| Option | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | --path <dir> | cwd | Directory to scan | | --threshold <months> | 12 | Months since last publish to flag as dead (red) | | --warn <months> | 6 | Months since last publish to flag as suspicious (yellow) |

Output

Each package is color-coded:

• RED bold — dead (no update longer than --threshold months)
• YELLOW — suspicious (no update longer than --warn months)
• GREEN — healthy
• GRAY — unknown (fetch failed or package not found)

Metadata shown per package:

• Last updated (months ago)
• Downloads/week (npm only; flagged if < 100/week)
• [DEPRECATED] notice if the npm package is deprecated

A summary is printed at the end with total, healthy, suspicious, dead, and unknown counts.

What it checks

npm (via registry.npmjs.org)

• Date of last publish
• Whether the latest version has a deprecated notice
• Weekly download count (flagged if < 100/week)

pip (via pypi.org/pypi/<pkg>/json)

• Date of last release
• Whether the package has any releases at all

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18 (uses native fetch)

License

Apache 2.0