Dependabot

Dependabot

Dependabot is an automated dependency update tool that helps developers keep their applications secure and up-to-date by monitoring dependencies for new releases and automatically raising pull requests to update them.
Dependabot image
automation security dependencies pull-requests

Dependabot: Automated Dependency Update Tool

Automated dependency update tool helping developers keep applications secure and up-to-date by monitoring dependencies for new releases and automatically raising pull requests to update them.

What is Dependabot?

Dependabot is an automated dependency update tool designed to help developers keep their applications secure and up-to-date. It monitors the dependency manifests and lock files (such as package.json, pom.xml, etc.) in a GitHub repository for new releases of the packages and dependencies they reference.

When Dependabot detects new versions that match the semver constraints specified for a dependency, it automatically opens pull requests against the repository to update the dependency to the latest compatible version. This saves developers the manual work of checking when dependencies need updating, and then raising their own pull requests to get the fixes and features of new releases.

By automating security fixes and version updates in open source dependencies, Dependabot improves developer productivity by reducing manual work, while also making applications more secure by easily keeping dependencies up-to-date against the latest fixes for vulnerabilities.

Dependabot is developed by GitHub and available for free to GitHub users, both for private and public repositories. GitHub also offers a paid Dependabot Enterprise version with additional features like internal registry support, auto-merging of updates, and more.

Dependabot Features

Features

  1. Automated dependency updates
  2. Customizable update frequency
  3. Support for multiple languages and package managers
  4. Configurable versioning and security policies
  5. Notifications and pull request creation
  6. Integration with GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket
  7. Detailed changelogs and release notes

Pricing

  • Free
  • Freemium
  • Subscription-Based

Pros

Saves time keeping dependencies up-to-date

Improves security by fixing vulnerabilities quickly

Reduces bugs caused by outdated dependencies

Easy to configure and customize

Seamless integration with popular git hosts

Free for public repositories

Cons

Can create many pull requests to review

May update to unwanted new major versions

Limited configuration for open source version

Not available for private repos in free tier


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