NPM Packages

How to check and when to update NPM-based packages.

Basically, what you want to do is:

1. Go to or clone the repo locally.

2. Run a git pull to get the latest changes.

3. Run yarn outdated or npm outdated to see the lie of the land.

Judgement needs to be used to decide if and when to update packages, and it'll depend on the package, the project and the client relationship. Usually it's OK to include package updates alongside development tasks, but it's a good idea to flag them with clients when they become out of date, so that they're expecting the extra costs.

Sometimes, big framework updates warrant a separate update done atomically, for example if there's a risk that a future change won't be able to be pushed live without the update and the update is a large/breaking one.