repo-updater

CLI tool that mass-updates dependencies across multiple git repositories using your preferred package manager (npm, pnpm, yarn, or Bun). Automatically detects the package manager, commits changes, creates pull requests via gh, and opens all resulting PR URLs in the browser.

Replaces manually running a dependency update workflow in each repo one-by-one.

Features

• Auto-detection: Automatically detects which package manager to use based on lockfiles
• Multi-package manager support: Works with npm, pnpm, yarn, and Bun
• Batch processing: Update dependencies in multiple repos in one command
• GitHub integration: Creates pull requests and opens them in your browser
• Dry-run mode: Preview changes without executing anything
• Cross-platform: Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux

Prerequisites

• Git
• GitHub CLI (gh) -- authenticated via gh auth login

Setup

bun install repo-updater -g

Usage

repo-updater [options] [repo paths...]

Options

| Flag | Description | | --- | --- | | -h, --help | Show help message | | -n, --dry-run | Print every step without executing any commands | | -c, --config <path> | Path to a custom config file |

Positional arguments

Pass one or more absolute repo paths directly to override the config file:

repo-updater C:\path\to\repo1 C:\path\to\repo2

Examples

# Update all repos listed in config
repo-updater

# Preview what would happen without touching anything
repo-updater --dry-run

# Use a different config file
repo-updater -c ./other-config.json

# Update a single repo directly
repo-updater C:\path\to\single-repo

Config file

The tool searches for a config file in this order:

1. Explicit path via -c / --config
2. ./repo-updater.config.json (current working directory)
3. ~/.config/repo-updater/config.json (user home)

Format

{
  "repos": [
    "C:\\path\\to\\repo-one",
    "C:\\path\\to\\repo-two"
  ]
}

The repos array contains absolute paths to git repositories. Directories that don't exist are skipped with a warning.

How it works

Package Manager Detection

The tool automatically detects which package manager to use by checking for lockfiles in this priority order:

1. package-lock.json → npm
2. pnpm-lock.yaml → pnpm
3. yarn.lock → yarn
4. bun.lock → Bun
5. (fallback) → npm

This allows you to manage mono-repos or mixed package manager environments without configuration.

Update Pipeline

For each repository, the tool runs this pipeline sequentially:

| Step | Command | | --- | --- | | 1 | Detect default branch via git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD (fallback to main) | | 2 | Detect package manager from lockfiles | | 3 | git checkout <default-branch> | | 4 | git pull | | 5 | git checkout -b chore/dep-updates-YYYY-MM-DD-<timestamp> | | 6 | <pm> update (or <pm> upgrade for yarn) | | 7 | <pm> install | | 8 | git status --porcelain | | 9 | git add -A | | 10 | git commit -m "dep updates YYYY-MM-DD" | | 11 | git push -u origin chore/dep-updates-YYYY-MM-DD-<timestamp> | | 12 | gh pr create --title "Dep Updates YYYY-MM-DD" --body "Dep Updates YYYY-MM-DD" |

If step 8 shows no changes, the branch is deleted and the repo is skipped (reported as "no changes").

After all repos are processed, a summary box lists every PR URL. You're then prompted to open them all in the browser.

Dry-run mode

With --dry-run, each step is printed to the console prefixed with [dry-run] but nothing is executed. No git commands run, no branches are created, no PRs are opened.

Example Scenarios

Single mono-repo with multiple package managers

If your mono-repo has packages/app using npm and packages/lib using pnpm, repo-updater will detect and use the correct package manager for each automatically.

Mixed environment

Manage repos using different package managers in a single batch operation:

{
  "repos": [
    "/path/to/npm-project",
    "/path/to/pnpm-monorepo",
    "/path/to/yarn-workspace",
    "/path/to/bun-project"
  ]
}

repo-updater will detect each one and run the appropriate update commands.