README

dependency-version-badge

A little script to update README file with dependency version badge

Badge examples

Example badge (in this readme) for dev dependency prettier (showing incorrect version 4.0.1)

![prettier version](https://img.shields.io/badge/prettier-4.0.1-brightgreen)

Can be updated by installing this module and running:

$ npm i -D dependency-version-badge
$ npx update-badge prettier
saving updated readme with prettier@2.0.5
# alternative without dev dependency
$ npx -p dependency-version-badge update-badge prettier

The README is updated to

![prettier version](https://img.shields.io/badge/prettier-2.0.5-brightgreen)

Good use: run this tool on push to master branch using GitHub Action, then push updated code (if any) back to the repository. See .github/workflows/demo.yml.

You can pass multiple names at once

npx update-badge prettier debug ...

If a badge is not found, a new badge will be inserted on the first line of the README file. If the version contains special characters like ~ or ^, they will be removed. If the version is *, then this tool will fail and exit with non-zero exit code.

Examples

cypress-svelte-unit-test, cy-rollup

Versions in remote repositories

You can look up dependency versions in package.json files in remote repositories

npx update-badge dependency-version-badge --from https://github.com/bahmutov/cypress-svelte-unit-test

Will update the badge below

![dependency-version-badge used in cypress-svelte-unit-test version](... badge url ...)

For GitHub urls, you can simply use --from <organization name>/<repo name> like this

npx update-badge dependency-version-badge --from bahmutov/cypress-svelte-unit-test

You can pass a single dependency name and multiple --from parameters

npx update-badge X --from bahmutov/repo1 --from bahmutov/repo2 --from bahmutov/repo3

You can shorten multiple --from parameters using commas without spaces

npx update-badge X --from bahmutov/repo1,bahmutov/repo2,bahmutov/repo3

You can use custom file instead README.md using --file parameter

npx update-badge --file ./folder1/folder2/info.md

Examples table

Badge	Example repo
	cypress-svelte-unit-test
	cy-rollup

Tip: you can set a GitHub workflow to run using a schedule to update those badges periodically. For example, to update the badges every night:

on:
  schedule:
    # update badges every night
    # because we have a few badges that are linked
    # to the external repositories
    - cron: '0 3 * * *'

See example in cypress-react-unit-test

Short badge

You can update a "short" badge where only the version of the dependency is listed. Use --short flag:

npx update-badge dependency-version-badge --short --from bahmutov/cy-rollup

The badge is below

Behind the latest version

By default every badge is bright green. But you can look up the latest version of the dependency and color code the badge depending on how far the current version is behind the latest version. If the current version is the latest, or a couple of minor versions behind, the badge is green. If the current version is more than a couple of minor releases behind, but is still on the same major version, the badge is yellow. If the current version is 1 or more major versions behind, the badge is red.