npm outdated — check for package updates

Quick Answer

# List outdated packages
npm outdated

# Update all packages to latest compatible version (respects semver)
npm update

# Update a specific package
npm update lodash

Usage

You want to check if your dependencies have newer versions available.

Other causes & fixes

Reading npm outdated output

npm outdated
# Package    Current   Wanted   Latest   Location
# lodash     4.17.20  4.17.21  4.17.21  node_modules/lodash
# react      17.0.2   17.0.2   18.3.0   node_modules/react
#
# Current: installed version
# Wanted:  latest that satisfies your package.json range
# Latest:  latest published on npm

Upgrade to latest (beyond semver range)

# Install latest explicitly
npm install lodash@latest

# Or use npm-check-updates to bump package.json
npx npm-check-updates -u
npm install

Check global packages

npm outdated -g