NPM Package.json Update Checker

NPM Update Checker for Zed IDE

Highlights outdated npm packages and changelogs in package.json files minimalistically using a Rust LSP.

Features

📥 Highlights outdated packages in package.json in real-time
🔍 Changelog between current version and latest version
- Parses and combines GitHub releases and/or CHANGELOG.md
- Shows changes from current to latest if possible
- Goes direct without API calls with rate limits
🔧 Offers auto-complete to update the package
- Shows available release tracks
- Includes fallback update targets from the current track (older than latest, newer than current)
📚 Distinguishes between release tracks (major/minor/patch/canary/nightly/beta/alpha/experimental)

Auto-completions

Zed auto-complete to upgrade quickly with the option to show multiple recent releases on current track.

Optional loading Indicator

The extension-side loading hint is enabled by default, but Zed disables inlay hints globally by default. Enable both layers in your Zed settings:

// settings.json
{
  "inlay_hints": {
    "enabled": true,
    "show_value_hints": true
  },
  "lsp": {
    "npm-package-json-checker-lsp": {
      "settings": {
        "show_loading_hints": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Install via Zed Extensions

Open Zed
cmd+shift+p and select zed: extensions
Search/select NPM Update Checker and Install

Manual Installation

Clone this repository

Build the LSP:

cargo build --locked --release -p npm-package-json-checker-lsp
cp target/release/npm-package-json-checker-lsp .

In Zed: Command Palette → "zed: install dev extension" → select this directory

The extension prefers this copied root binary during dev-extension testing, so it will not silently substitute a previously published GitHub asset.

To test the checkout locally, run cargo test --locked --workspace --all-features and cargo fmt --all -- --check. The release workflow also builds the extension for wasm32-wasip2.

Misc

Caches packages and attempts to not re-pull them if it doesn't need to

Configuration

Configure the extension in your Zed settings.json under lsp.npm-package-json-checker-lsp.settings.

Make sure to restart Zed or the LSP server after making changes.

Key	Type	Default	Description
`registry_url`	`string`	`"https://registry.npmjs.org"`	Registry base URL used for package metadata lookups (manual override; `.npmrc`/env discovery is not used).
`cache_ttl_seconds`	`number`	`300`	Cache TTL in seconds (`0` disables cache reuse).
`max_concurrent_requests`	`number`	`10`	Max concurrent registry requests (minimum `1`).
`max_concurrent_changelog_requests`	`number`	`4`	Max concurrent changelog requests (minimum `1`).
`request_timeout_seconds`	`number`	`15`	HTTP timeout in seconds (minimum `1`).
`show_loading_hints`	`boolean`	`true`	Show loading inlay hints while package version metadata is being fetched. Zed's global `inlay_hints.enabled` setting must also be enabled.
`show_experimental_tracks`	`boolean`	`false`	Show extra hint diagnostics for newer non-current tracks (including experimental/pre-release tracks).
`recent_releases_in_code_actions`	`number`	`2`	Number of fallback "recent release" code actions on the current track (`0` disables them).
`date_tag_mode`	`"date" \| "timeago" \| "date+timeago"`	`"date+timeago"`	Controls how release dates are rendered in labels/changelog headers.
`date_format`	`string`	`"%d/%m/%Y"`	`chrono` date format string used when `date_tag_mode` includes date output.

Default settings snippet:

{
  "lsp": {
    "npm-package-json-checker-lsp": {
      "settings": {
        "registry_url": "https://registry.npmjs.org",
        "cache_ttl_seconds": 300,
        "max_concurrent_requests": 10,
        "max_concurrent_changelog_requests": 4,
        "request_timeout_seconds": 15,
        "show_loading_hints": true,
        "show_experimental_tracks": false,
        "recent_releases_in_code_actions": 2,
        "date_tag_mode": "date+timeago",
        "date_format": "%d/%m/%Y"
      }
    }
  }
}