Getting Started¶

This section takes you from an empty shell to a rewritten requirements file, and explains what depkeeper decided along the way.

Read it in order:

Installation — supported platforms, install methods, verification.
Quick Start — the shortest path to a safe update.
Basic Usage — reading the output, and the decisions behind each column.

Once you are comfortable, continue to Core Concepts for the model depkeeper uses internally, or to the User Guide for task-oriented workflows.

Prerequisites¶

Requirement	Detail
Python	3.8 or later. depkeeper filters candidate versions against the interpreter it runs under.
Network	Outbound HTTPS to `pypi.org`. depkeeper has no offline mode; see Operations.
Input file	A pip-style requirements file. `requirements.txt` is the default argument.

depkeeper never installs, uninstalls or imports the packages it analyses. It reads metadata from the PyPI JSON API only, so it is safe to run against a file describing an environment you do not have installed.

The 60-second version¶

Bash

pip install depkeeper           # or: pipx install depkeeper
depkeeper check                 # read-only report
depkeeper update --dry-run      # show exactly what would be written
depkeeper update --backup       # write it, keeping a timestamped copy

check never modifies anything. update prompts before writing unless you pass -y.

What depkeeper decides for you¶

Before running it against a real project, understand the four rules that shape every recommendation. All four are enforced, not advisory:

Rule	Effect	Reference
Major boundary	A package on `1.x` is never moved to `2.x`.	Version recommendation
Python compatibility	Versions whose `requires_python` excludes your interpreter are skipped.	Version recommendation
Declared constraints	Upper bounds and exclusions you wrote are preserved and are never violated.	Version recommendation
No pre-releases	Alpha/beta/rc versions are excluded from every candidate list.	Version recommendation

If any of these produce an unwanted result, that is a configuration or workflow question, not a bug. Best practices covers how to work with them.