update-notifier-skilld

name	update-notifier-skilld
description	ALWAYS use when writing code importing "update-notifier". Consult for debugging, best practices, or modifying update-notifier, update notifier.
metadata	{"version":"7.3.1","generated_by":"Anthropic · Haiku 4.5","generated_at":"2026-06-26T00:00:00.000Z"}

yeoman/update-notifier update-notifier@7.3.1

Tags: latest: 7.3.1

References: package.json • Releases

Search

Use skilld search "query" -p update-notifier instead of grepping .skilld/ directories. Run skilld search --guide -p update-notifier for full syntax, filters, and operators.

API Changes

This section documents version-specific API changes for update-notifier v7.3.1 — prioritizing recent major/minor releases.

• BREAKING: notify() message output — v7.0.0 removed Yarn install command suggestions, only npm install commands are shown source

• BREAKING: ESM-only module — v6.0.0 and continuing in v7, the package is pure ESM with no CommonJS support; require('update-notifier') will fail source

• BREAKING: Node.js 18 minimum — v7.0.0 requires Node.js 18 or higher (v6 supported Node.js 14+) source

• DEPRECATED: packageName and packageVersion options — use pkg.name and pkg.version in the options object instead; old options still work but are deprecated source

Also changed: updateCheckInterval default 1 day · distTag default 'latest' · shouldNotifyInNpmScript default false

Best Practices

• Always pass both pkg.name and pkg.version — these are required and the library will throw an error if either is missing source

• Check process.stdout.isTTY before displaying notifications — prevents cluttering output in non-interactive environments like CI, logs, or piped commands source

• Use check intervals to avoid overwhelming the npm registry — defaults to 1 day, but honour the interval by checking the last update check timestamp before spawning a background process source

• Spawn background checks as detached, unref'd child processes — uses spawn(process.execPath, [...], {detached: true, stdio: 'ignore'}).unref() to prevent blocking the parent CLI process and allowing it to exit source

• Cache update information across CLI invocations — fetch results are persisted to disk via ConfigStore so the second run displays cached updates without re-checking npm source

• Initialize lastUpdateCheck with the current time on first run — prevents checking for updates immediately on first invocation, giving users a grace period before notifications appear source

• Support multiple opt-out mechanisms for end users — check the NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER environment variable, --no-update-notifier CLI flag, test environment (NODE_ENV=test), and CI detection automatically source

• Handle ConfigStore permission errors with helpful user guidance — catch EACCES/EPERM errors and display a formatted message suggesting sudo chown to fix permissions source

• Import only required functions from semver for optimal startup performance — use import semverDiff from 'semver/functions/diff.js' rather than importing the full semver module source

• Defer notification display to process exit by default — set options.defer = true to avoid interrupting CLI output; use defer: false only when you control the output stream source

• Use distTag to support non-latest versions — allows users to track alternative npm dist-tags like @canary, @next, or @beta instead of only latest source

• Provide sensible defaults for boxenOptions in notifications — defaults include {padding: 1, margin: 1, textAlignment: 'center', borderColor: 'yellow', borderStyle: 'round'} which create readable, visually consistent notifications source

• Use template placeholders for customizable messages — support custom notification text via options.message with substitution for {packageName}, {currentVersion}, {latestVersion}, and {updateCommand} source

• Set shouldNotifyInNpmScript: true only when appropriate — by default notifications are suppressed when running as an npm script to avoid noisy output during npm run workflows source

Related: chalk-skilld