--- title: "Upgrading a dependency with your assistant, changelog first" description: "Why an assistant should read what changes before it upgrades a package, the upgrade page that gathers every release note in between, /inlinr:upgrade in Claude Code, and the MCP tools any assistant can call." url: https://inlinr.com/guides/upgrade-a-dependency-with-your-assistant lang: en --- # Upgrading a dependency with your assistant, changelog first Why an assistant should read what changes before it upgrades a package, the upgrade page that gathers every release note in between, /inlinr:upgrade in Claude Code, and the MCP tools any assistant can call. AI usage 5 min read Updated 29 Oct 2026 By [Thibault Fayard](https://inlinr.com/authors/thibault-fayard) ![A feed of security advisories, major releases and deprecations for a project's npm packages](https://inlinr.com/marketing/deps.jpg) An assistant can bump a version and fix the type errors in a minute. What it cannot do on its own is know what changed between your version and the next one: the breaking change described only in a migration guide, the option renamed in a minor release, the advisory the upgrade fixes or leaves open. inlinr reads every release note of a package once, so your assistant starts from that instead of from its training data. ## Read what changes first Between two major versions of a popular package there are often dozens of releases, and the notes that matter are spread across them. Some breaking changes are in a guide rather than in any note; some releases have no note at all. An assistant that upgrades from memory fixes what the compiler reports and misses what changed behaviour without changing a type. So the order is: what changes, then where your code uses the package, then the upgrade, then your checks. ## The upgrade page Every npm package page on inlinr has an Upgrade tab, with one public page per upgrade at `/packages//upgrade/-`. It gathers, from every release in between, the breaking changes and deprecations as one checklist, the migration guides, the advisories the upgrade fixes and those that remain, and what the target asks of your project: its peer dependencies, its Node version, its module format. When notes are missing, the counts say so rather than reading as zero. Its side column copies the install command for your package manager and a prompt for an assistant built from all of that, so you can paste it into any of them. Check a whole package.json Paste a package.json: each dependency is compared to its latest version, with the advisories that affect what you declare. [Open the dependency check](https://inlinr.com/tools/dependency-check) ## In Claude Code: /inlinr:upgrade With the [inlinr plugin for Claude Code](https://inlinr.com/guides/track-claude-code) installed, one command does the whole sequence: Claude Code ``` /inlinr:upgrade next 16.0.0 ``` Claude finds the package.json files that declare the package and the version installed, reads what changes up to the version you name (the latest if you leave it out), and reads the migration guides. For a major upgrade, it tells you what it found and waits for your go ahead. Then it finds where your code imports the package, upgrades it with your package manager, changes what the breaking changes affect, and runs your type checker, linter, tests and build. Only the package name and the two versions leave your machine; no account is needed. ## With any assistant: the MCP server The inlinr CLI includes an MCP server, `inlinr mcp`, that Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client can use. Three of its tools serve an upgrade: `upgrade_notes` reads what changes between two versions, `find_usages` searches your code for the package's imports without sending anything, and `my_upgrades` lists the upgrades of your followed projects, security fixes first. Ask the assistant to upgrade a package and it calls them in that order. Setup is on the [MCP integration page](https://inlinr.com/integrations/mcp). ## What inlinr does Dependafeed follows the npm dependencies of the projects you choose: their releases, deprecations and advisories, and an Upgrades tab that ranks what to do across all of them. Three followed projects are free. A public repository on GitHub is read from its default branch; a private one, or one hosted elsewhere, sends its manifests through `inlinr sync-deps`, and only for a project you turned it on for. ## Sources - [The upgrade command](https://github.com/inlinrhq/inlinr-claude-code/blob/main/skills/upgrade/SKILL.md), in the inlinr plugin for Claude Code: each step Claude follows. Checked on 29 October 2026. - [The inlinr CLI](https://github.com/inlinrhq/inlinr-cli), its README: `inlinr mcp` and its tools, `inlinr sync-deps`. Checked on 29 October 2026. - [Semantic Versioning 2.0.0](https://semver.org): what a major, a minor and a patch version promise. Checked on 29 October 2026. ## See it on your own sessions Follow a project in Dependafeed and its upgrades come ranked, security fixes first, each with what changes and a prompt for your assistant. [Dependafeed](https://inlinr.com/dependencies) Free for solo use ยท no source code leaves your machine ## Read also - [Setup Switching from WakaTime without losing a day Your history comes with you, your WakaTime plugins keep working, and the scripts that read WakaTime's API too. Three steps. 4 min read](https://inlinr.com/guides/switch-from-wakatime) - [Setup Coding stats in your GitHub profile README, without an API key GitHub only shows images and text you commit. What that means for a stats card, and four steps to yours. 5 min read](https://inlinr.com/guides/github-readme-coding-stats) - [Integration inlinr in your AI assistant inlinr's MCP server lets Claude Code, Cursor, Claude Desktop or any MCP client tell you your coding time and AI cost, log a call, and check a package before you upgrade. Open](https://inlinr.com/integrations/mcp)