/outdated

What

A three-layer dependency health report:

1. Inventory — every PackageReference per project, with TFMs and central package management awareness, via the get_nuget_packages MCP tool (no network, token-cheap).
2. Staleness + vulnerabilities — current vs latest stable, and known CVEs, via the dotnet CLI.
3. License screen — flags packages that moved to commercial licenses so an innocent dotnet outdated --upgrade doesn't silently change your legal position.

The output is a single prioritized table — vulnerabilities first, license traps second, staleness last — with a recommended action per row.

When

• "check for outdated packages", "package audit", "dependency health"
• Before a .NET version upgrade (pairs with /migrate Flow B)
• After inheriting an unfamiliar codebase
• Dependabot/NuGet audit warnings appeared and you want the full picture
• Periodically on long-lived projects — quarterly is a good cadence

How

Step 1: Inventory (MCP, no network)

get_nuget_packages()                          -- whole solution
get_nuget_packages(projectFilter: "Api")      -- or one project

Returns per-project {Name, TargetFramework, Cpm, Packages: [{Id, Version}]}. Note Cpm: true — updates then belong in Directory.Packages.props, not the csproj. Flag mixed TFMs across projects while you're here.

Step 2: Staleness and vulnerabilities (CLI)

dotnet list package --outdated
dotnet list package --vulnerable --include-transitive

Both need a successful restore first. If restore fails, fix that before auditing — a broken lock state makes version output unreliable.

Step 3: License screen

Check the inventory against the known commercial moves (full rationale in knowledge/package-recommendations.md):

Package	Commercial from	Free alternative
MediatR	13+ (Lucky Penny, RPL)	Mediator (martinothamar) — source-generated, MIT
MassTransit	9+ (v8 Apache, patches end 2026 then EOL)	Wolverine 6.x, or stay on v8 short-term
FluentAssertions	8+ (v7 stays Apache, frozen)	xUnit built-in Assert (kit default), Shouldly, AwesomeAssertions
AutoMapper	15+ (Lucky Penny)	Manual mapping (kit default) or Mapperly (MIT)

A license flag fires when the project is on the free major and a naive "update all" would cross the boundary — that is the trap this step exists for.

Step 4: Report

One table, priority-ordered:

Priority	Meaning	Action
VULNERABLE	Known CVE in current version	Update now, test, deploy
LICENSE	Next major crosses a commercial boundary	Pin below boundary or plan migration
MAJOR	Behind a major (breaking changes likely)	One at a time, release notes first
MINOR/PATCH	Routine drift	Batch patches; minors one at a time

Step 5: Act (optional)

Offer to execute updates via /migrate Flow C — one package at a time, dotnet build && dotnet test between each. Never batch major updates: batched failures are unattributable.

MCP Tools Used

• get_nuget_packages — inventory, CPM detection, TFM audit
• get_diagnostics — verify the solution still compiles clean after updates

Example

User: /outdated

Claude: Inventorying packages (get_nuget_packages)...
  3 projects, CPM enabled (Directory.Packages.props), all net10.0.

  Checking versions and CVEs...

  | Package                  | Current | Latest  | Priority   | Action                          |
  |--------------------------|---------|---------|------------|---------------------------------|
  | System.Text.Json (trans.)| 10.0.2  | 10.0.10 | VULNERABLE | Update now (CVE-2026-XXXX)      |
  | MassTransit              | 8.3.0   | 9.1.2   | LICENSE    | v9 is commercial. Stay on v8    |
  |                          |         |         |            | (EOL end 2026) or plan Wolverine|
  | Serilog.AspNetCore       | 9.0.0   | 10.0.0  | MAJOR      | Update alone, check sink compat |
  | FluentValidation         | 12.0.1  | 12.1.1  | PATCH      | Batch with other patches        |

  1 vulnerability, 1 license trap, 1 major, 1 patch.
  Want me to apply these via /migrate Flow C?

Related

• /migrate — Flow C executes the updates this report recommends
• knowledge/package-recommendations.md — vetted packages + licensing detail
• knowledge/mediatr-to-mediator-migration.md — step-by-step MediatR exit
• /verify — full pipeline after applying updates