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Modifying package.json

rush add​

Let's say you need to add a new dependency on a library "example-lib". Without Rush, you would do something like this:

# DON'T DO THIS IN A RUSH REPO:
~/my-repo$ cd apps/my-app
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ npm install --save example-lib

In a Rush repo, you should instead use the rush add command:

~/my-repo$ cd apps/my-app

# Add "example-lib" as a dependency of "my-app", and then automatically run "rush update":
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ rush add --package example-lib

The rush add command can also be used to update the version of an existing dependency:

# Update "my-app" to use "example-lib" version "~1.2.3":
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ rush add --package example-lib@1.2.3

# Or if you want the version specifier "^1.2.3":
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ rush add --package example-lib@1.2.3 --caret

# A more advanced example, where we query the NPM registry to find latest version that is
# compatible with the SemVer specifier "^1.2.0" and then add it as a tilde dependency
# such as "~1.5.3".
#
# IMPORTANT: When specifying symbol characters on the command line, use quotes so they
# don't get misinterpreted by your shell.
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ rush add --package "example-lib@^1.2.0"

# If any other projects in the repo are using "example-lib", you can update them all
# to "1.2.3" in bulk:
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ rush add --package example-lib@1.2.3 --make-consistent

rush remove​

There is also a corresponding rush remove command for deleting entries from package.json:

~/my-repo$ cd apps/my-app

# Remove the "example-lib" dependency from package.json and then automatically run "rush update":
~/my-repo/apps/my-app$ rush remove --package example-lib

Manually modifying package.json​

Of course, you can also simply edit the package.json file directly. Remember to run rush update afterwards to update the shrinkwrap file.

Tip: A cool VS Code feature

By the way, if you use Visual Studio Code as your editor, the Version Lens extension can display a tool tip showing the latest version of each dependency in your package.json. This is helpful for finding and fixing outdated versions.

rush upgrade-interactive​

The rush add and rush remove commands operate on a single dependency at a time. To upgrade many packages and projects across your repo, you can use the rush upgrade-interactive command. It will walk you through selecting projects and choosing which versions to upgrade:

rush upgrade-interactive screenshot

Choosing the project

rush upgrade-interactive screenshot

Choosing the dependencies to upgrade

pnpm outdated​

To create a report about outdated dependencies, you can also use the pnpm outdated command. Note that when invoking PNPM commands in a Rush monorepo, you must use the rush-pnpm CLI helper.

rush-pnpm outdated screenshot

Invoking rush-pnpm outdated