UGDM - Universal Git Dependency Manager

UGDM is a CLI tool that manages project dependencies directly via Git repositories, allowing you to clone, version, and install libraries in a standardized way — independent of registries like npm, pip, etc.

📦 Installation

npm install -g ugdm

Requirements:

• Node.js and npm installed
• Git installed

📁 Project Structure

UGDM uses a single configuration file:

dependencies.json

This file defines:

• Installation directory (path)
• Dependencies
• Scopes (reusable URL prefixes)
• Variables (e.g. tokens)

⚙️ Commands

ugdm init [--path <dir>]

Creates the dependencies.json file.

ugdm add <name> <url | @scope/repo> [<version>] [--tag] [--auth <type:var>]

Adds a dependency.

ugdm scope <name> <base-url> [--auth <type:var>]

Defines a reusable URL scope.

ugdm set <variable> <value>

Defines a variable to be used in generated scripts.

ugdm install

Clones the repositories listed.

ugdm update [<lib>] [--branch <branch>] [--tag]

Updates cloned repositories.

ugdm remove <lib>

Removes the cloned repository (does not modify generated scripts).

ugdm build [<os>] [--auth | --no-auth]

Generates dependencies (Linux/macOS) and dependencies.bat (Windows) scripts.

🔐 Authentication

Use --auth to access private repositories:

ugdm set token {{1}}
ugdm add lib-a https://gitlab.com/org/lib-a.git --auth "oauth2:{{token}}"
ugdm build

./dependencies MY_TOKEN

📄 Example dependencies.json

{
  "path": "libs/",
  "scopes": {
    "internal": {
      "url": "https://gitlab.com/org/libs",
      "auth": "oauth2:{{token}}"
    }
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "core-lib": {
      "url": "https://gitlab.com/org/core-lib.git",
      "version": "master",
      "commit": "25e8dbc470888ade90712532de6cc430fb3a10b9"
    },
    "shared-lib": {
      "url": "@internal/shared-lib.git",
      "version": "v1.0.0"
    }
  },
  "variables": {
    "token": "{{1}}"
  }
}

✅ Best Practices

• Use HTTPS URLs
• Never store tokens directly in the JSON
• Use variables and --auth for safety
• Version dependencies.json, dependencies and dependencies.bat, but add vendor/ to .gitignore

🧪 Complete Example

ugdm init --path libs/
ugdm set token {{1}}
ugdm scope internal https://gitlab.com/org/libs --auth "oauth2:{{token}}"
ugdm add shared-lib @internal/shared-lib.git
ugdm build
./dependencies MY_TOKEN

📄 License

MIT © 2025 — Thiago Leal