Update Groups

Update groups give you per-dependency control over what counts as an eligible registry update for the update command. Use them to clamp some dependencies to patch-only updates, others to minor, and to opt specific dependencies out of update consideration entirely.

How groups are assigned

When syncpack reads each instance of a dependency, it walks through your updateGroups array in source code order until it finds a match — the first match wins and syncpack stops searching.

An instance can match at most one update group. Instances which do not match any group fall through to the CLI's --target value (which defaults to latest).

When --target is set

When both the CLI's --target flag and a matched group's target apply to the same instance, the stricter of the two wins.

CLI --target	Group target	Effective
latest	patch	patch
latest	minor	minor
minor	patch	patch
patch	latest	patch

This means you can safely set the CLI default to latest and use update groups to opt individual dependencies into stricter rules, without the CLI ever loosening a group's policy.

Examples

.syncpackrc.json

{
  "updateGroups": [
    // Storybook bumps tend to be coordinated; only ever take patch updates.
    { "dependencies": ["storybook", "@storybook/**"], "target": "patch" },
    // Dev tooling can move freely on minor.
    { "dependencyTypes": ["dev"], "target": "minor" },
    // Production deps stay on patch only.
    { "dependencyTypes": ["prod"], "target": "patch" },
    // Peer dependencies are owned by consumers; never update them.
    { "dependencyTypes": ["peer"], "isIgnored": true },
  ],
}

Default values

Any properties of an update group that are omitted will match-all by default, so the two examples below are equivalent.

Short form

{
  "updateGroups": [
    {
      "target": "patch"
    }
  ]
}

Long form

{
  "updateGroups": [
    {
      "dependencies": ["**"],
      "dependencyTypes": ["**"],
      "packages": ["**"],
      "specifierTypes": ["**"],
      "target": "patch"
    }
  ]
}

Variants

Ignored Exclude specific dependencies from registry update consideration

Targeted Clamp registry updates to patch, minor, or latest for specific dependencies