Antq

Point out your outdated dependencies.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Supported files
• Usage
  • Clojure CLI (deps.edn)
  • Clojure CLI Tools
  • Babashka (bbin)
  • Leiningen (as a main program)
  • Leiningen (as a plugin)
  • GitHub Actions
  • Gradle
  • Timeouts
• Options
  • --upgrade
  • --force
  • --exclude=ARTIFACT_NAME[@VERSION] …​
  • --directory=DIRECTORY …​
  • --focus=ARTIFACT_NAME …​
  • --skip=PROJECT_TYPE …​
  • --error-format=ERROR_FORMAT
  • --reporter=REPORTER
  • --download
  • --ignore-locals
  • --check-gradle
  • --check-clojure-tools
  • --no-progress
  • --no-changes
  • --no-diff
  • --changes-in-table
  • --transitive
  • --cooldown=DURATION
• Projects using antq
• Tips
• License

Requirements

Antq needs Clojure v1.11 or later or Babashka.

• If your project is using an earlier version of Clojure, all should be fine; see this tip

• We recommend that you always use the latest Babashka

Supported files

File	Tool/Service	Supports Upgrade?	Note
deps.edn	Clojure CLI	✅
shadow-cljs.edn	Shadow-cljs	✅
project.clj	Leiningen	✅	Can be used via program or via plugin.
build.boot	Boot	✅
pom.xml	Maven	✅
.circleci/config.yml	CircleCI	✅
.github/workflows/*.yml	GitHub Actions	✅	Upgrades an action pinned to a commit SHA with a version comment, such as actions/checkout@<sha> # v4.1.0, to the commit of its latest release.
bb.edn	Babashka	✅
build.gradle, build.gradle.kts	Gradle	❌	Experimental. Uses the project’s gradlew file if present; otherwise the gradle command must be installed. Disabled by default. See --check-gradle option.
~/.clojure/tools	Clojure CLI Tools	✅	Disabled by default. See --check-clojure-tools option.

Usage

Clojure CLI (deps.edn)

Run the following command from your project root directory to quickly try antq:

clojure -Sdeps '{:deps {com.github.liquidz/antq {:mvn/version "2.11.1276"}}}' \
  -M -m antq.core

Or add the following alias to your project deps.edn or $HOME/.clojure/deps.edn.

{
 :aliases
 {:outdated {;; Use `:deps` to replace your project default deps
             :deps {com.github.liquidz/antq {:mvn/version "2.11.1276"}}
             :main-opts ["-m" "antq.core"]}}
}

Then, run clojure -M:outdated.

Clojure CLI Tools

If you are using Clojure CLI version 1.11.1.1139 or later, you can install antq as a tool.

# Install tool
clojure -Ttools install-latest :lib com.github.liquidz/antq :as antq
# Uninstall tool
clojure -Ttools remove :tool antq
# Update tool
clojure -Ttools install-latest :tool antq

# Execute
clojure -Tantq outdated
# Execute with parameter
clojure -Tantq outdated :upgrade true
# Show help
clojure -A:deps -Tantq help/doc
# Show full CLI usage help
clojure -Tantq outdated :help true
# Upgrade outdated dependencies
clojure -Tantq outdated :check-clojure-tools true :upgrade true

Babashka (bbin)

Install antq as a command with bbin.

bbin install io.github.clj-commons/antq
antq

Enable shell completion in ~/.zshrc. Replace zsh with bash, fish, powershell, or nushell for other shells.

source <(antq org.babashka.cli/completions snippet --shell zsh)

Leiningen (as a main program)

Add the following dependency and alias to your project.clj or $HOME/.lein/profiles.clj.

{
 :user
 {:aliases {"outdated" ["with-profile" "antq" "run" "-m" "antq.core"]}}
 :antq
 {:dependencies [[com.github.liquidz/antq "2.11.1276"]]}
 }

Then, run lein outdated.

Leiningen (as a plugin)

The Leiningen plugin is a newer offering. It tends to be more accurate (since Leiningen evaluates your project.clj instead of antq parsing it). However, it does not check any other sources (deps.edn, etc.), and the :upgrade option will not be supported (since the plugin cannot always know whether a given dependency came from a specific profile, middleware, etc.).

To use it, add the following plugin to your project.clj (or $HOME/.lein/profiles.clj):

 :plugins [[com.github.liquidz/antq "2.11.1276"]]
 ;; optional - you can add antq options here:
 :antq {}

Then, run lein antq.

GitHub Actions

Antq can work with GitHub Actions. You can roll your own, or use the antq-action (example usage).

If you roll your own, use a custom --error-format to show findings as GitHub Actions annotations: --error-format="::error file={{file}}::{{message}}"

Gradle

Antq experimentally supports Gradle. See our Gradle docs for details. Disabled by default, see --check-gradle.

Timeouts

Antq has timeouts for fetching various kinds of information. See Timeouts for details.

Options

Tip	Repeatable Options: Options documented with …​ at the end of their names can be specified multiple times. For example, to --exclude=ARTIFACT_NAME[@VERSION] …​ artifact a and b you can express this as: --exclude=a --exclude=b or --exclude=a:b

Note

Option Syntaxes: We describe options here as they would be specified for clojure cli usage. Adapt as necessary when specifying for clojure tool usage or lein plugin :antq option usage. For example: --upgrade is specified as :upgrade true for both clojure tool and antq option usage --exclude=ARTIFACT1 --exclude ARTIFACT2 is specified as :exclude '["ARTIFACT1" "ARTIFACT2"]' for clojure tool usage :exclude ["ARTIFACT1" "ARTIFACT2"] as a lein plugin :antq option

--upgrade

Upgrade outdated versions interactively. You can use the --force option for upgrading without confirmation, and the --download option to download upgraded dependencies on the fly.

Warning

The --upgrade option does not support Gradle files.

--force

Use with --upgrade for a non-interactive upgrade.

--exclude=ARTIFACT_NAME[@VERSION] …​

Skip version checking for specified artifacts or versions. Specify multiple times for multiple artifacts.

E.g.

# Exclude all versions of specified artifact
--exclude=com.github.liquidz/antq
# Exclude specific version of specified artifact
--exclude=com.github.liquidz/antq@0.13.0
# Exclude version range of specified artifact
--exclude=com.github.liquidz/antq@0.13.x

When you specify a version number, antq will report the latest version excluding only the specified version.

You can also specify dependencies to exclude with :antq/exclude metadata. See Exclusions for more information.

Note	You must specify groupId/artifactId for Java dependencies even when groupId and artifactId are the same. For example: rewrite-clj/rewrite-clj.

--directory=DIRECTORY …​

Add a search path for project files. The current directory (.) is added by default. Specify multiple times for multiple directories.

E.g. -d foo --directory=bar:baz will search ".", "foo", "baz", and "bar" directories.

--focus=ARTIFACT_NAME …​

Focus version checking for specified artifacts only. Specify multiple times for multiple artifacts.

E.g. --focus=com.github.liquidz/antq

Note	You must specify groupId/artifactId for Java dependencies.

Warning

the --focus option takes precedence over the --exclude option.

If you want to focus the upgrade on a specific version of a dependency, you can use --focus=ARTIFACT_NAME[@VERSION].

E.g. --focus=com.github.liquidz/antq@50.2.0

This will set the antq dependency to version 50.2.0, even if that version doesn’t exist.

--skip=PROJECT_TYPE …​

Skip searching of specified project files by type. Must be one of boot, clojure-cli, github-action, gradle, pom, shadow-cljs, leiningen, or babashka. Specify multiple times to skip multiple project file types.

E.g. --skip=pom --skip=leiningen

--error-format=ERROR_FORMAT

Customize the output for outdated dependencies.

E.g. --error-format="::error file={{file}}::{{message}}"

You can use the following variables:

Variable Name	Description
{{file}}	A filename containing outdated dependencies.
{{name}}	The artifact name.
{{version}}	The current version.
{{latest-version}}	The latest version.
{{latest-name}}	The latest artifact name. See details: Clojars Verified Group Names policy.
{{changes-url}}	The changes URL in the version control system. (Nullable)
{{released-at}}	The ISO-8601 release date of the current version, Maven dependencies only. (Nullable)
{{latest-released-at}}	The ISO-8601 release date of the latest version, Maven dependencies only. (Nullable)
{{cooldown-version}}	The newest version outside the --cooldown=DURATION period. (Nullable)
{{cooldown-released-at}}	The ISO-8601 release date of the cooldown version. (Nullable)
{{cooldown}}	The --cooldown=DURATION period, e.g. 7d. (Nullable)
{{diff-url}}	Warning DEPRECATED. Please use {{changes-url}} instead. The diff URL for the version control system. (Nullable)
{{message}}	Default error message.

Antq uses Pogonos as a template engine, so you can use Mustache features.

e.g. {{name}}{{#latest-name}} → {{.}}{{/latest-name}}

Tip	When running as a clojure tool, you might need some extra escaping for this option’s value, for example: clojure -Tantq outdated :error-format '"{{file}}::{{message}}"'

--reporter=REPORTER

Reporter Name	Description
table (default)	Report results in a table. See also --changes-in-table.
format	Report results with a custom format. When you use the --error-format option, this reporter will be used automatically.
json	Report results in JSON format.
edn	Report results in EDN format.

--download

If download is set and updated dependencies are found, download them at the same time as a convenience. The default action is not to download anything.

Warning

antq only downloads upgraded dependencies with the --upgrade option. If you upgrade manually or without the --download option and the version is changed to the latest, the new version will not be downloaded even if you specify the --download option later (because antq does not detect differences).

--ignore-locals

For Java dependencies, ignore versions installed to your local Maven repository (~/.m2/). Disabled by default.

--check-gradle

Because Gradle dependencies are discovered by invoking gradlew or gradle, this implies some risk. Checking Gradle dependencies is opt-in via --check-gradle.

Gradle dependencies do not support --upgrade.

--check-clojure-tools

Detect all tools installed in ~/.clojure/tools as dependencies. You can also upgrade them with the --upgrade option.

--no-progress

Skip progress reporting. Progress reporting is enabled by default.

--no-changes

Skip checking changes between deps' versions. Disabled by default.

--no-diff

Warning

DEPRECATED. Please use --no-changes instead.

Skip checking the diff between deps' versions. Disabled by default.

--changes-in-table

Show changes URLs in the table. This option is only recognized when using --reporter=table. Disabled by default.

--transitive

Scan outdated transitive dependencies. Disabled by default.

Note	The default scan depth is 5, but it is customizable via the environment variable ANTQ_TRANSITIVE_MAX_DEPTH.

Warning

With this option, the number of reported dependencies tends to be very large, so it is recommended to use it with the --no-changes option. Otherwise, it may take a long time for the results to be reported. Reading release dates adds to this time: antq reads them for the current and latest versions of each outdated Maven dependency, and with --cooldown=DURATION also for newer versions until one is old enough.

--cooldown=DURATION

Only suggest versions released at least DURATION ago. DURATION is a number of days with the unit d, e.g. --cooldown=7d (:cooldown '"7d"' when running as a clojure tool). A cooldown gives time to spot a broken or compromised release before it reaches your project. Disabled by default and with 0d.

For Maven dependencies, the table always shows the age of the current and latest versions in an age column next to each. With this option, it also shows between the current and latest versions:

• cooldown: the newest version released at least DURATION ago, or the current version if all newer versions are too new

• age: the age of the cooldown version

• dur: the cooldown period

Like the latest version, the cooldown version is a pre-release only if the current version is one. It is never a SNAPSHOT version: a SNAPSHOT has no release date and can be replaced at any time.

The json and edn reporters include :released-at, :latest-released-at, :cooldown-version, :cooldown-released-at, and :cooldown, and --error-format=ERROR_FORMAT can use them too.

--upgrade upgrades to the cooldown version and prints the newer versions it skipped. A dependency whose newer versions are all inside the cooldown is still reported, but does not make antq exit with 1.

Note

A release date is the Last-Modified header of the version’s POM file, so the cooldown applies to Maven dependencies only. A version whose release date can’t be read counts as too new; --verbose shows a warning for it. Mirrors and proxies (e.g. Nexus, Artifactory) may report when they cached a file instead of its release date, which makes the cooldown longer. Clojars artifacts released before February 2020 show a release date in February 2020 (Clojars didn’t keep the older dates), so their age is too low.

Projects using antq

• clojure-dependency-update-action: A simple GitHub Actions to create pull requests for outdated tools.deps dependencies

• Biff: The update task upgrades dependencies with antq, and the add task uses antq to find the latest versions

• exoscale/tools.project: The outdated task runs antq

• pbr: The antq-outdated build task runs antq

• Polylith: poly libs :outdated and poly libs :update use antq

• practicalli/clojure-cli-config: The :search/outdated and :update/dependency-versions aliases run antq

• task-keeper: tk outdated for Leiningen projects runs antq through a lein outdated alias

Tips

• Maven S3 repos

• Quiet SLF4J logger warnings

• Find the latest version of a library

• Antq on projects that use an old version of Clojure

• Working with Gradle

• Running behind a proxy

• Timeouts

• Excluding dependencies

• Using antq as a library

License

Copyright © 2020-2025 Masashi Iizuka

This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0.

This Source Code may also be made available under the following Secondary Licenses when the conditions for such availability set forth in the Eclipse Public License, v. 2.0 are satisfied: GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version, with the GNU Classpath Exception which is available at https://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html.