Elevate

Interactive Polyglot Terminal Dashboard (TUI) and MCP Server for safe, selective, and transparent dependency management across monorepos and multi-project repositories.

📖 Documentation

• 🇬🇧 English Documentation — Architecture, release channels, safety mechanisms, headless CLI, MCP server, and configuration.

• 🇩🇪 Deutsche Dokumentation — Vollständige Anleitung, Architektur, Release Channels, Monorepo-Schutz und Konfiguration.

Related MCP server: upgrade-pilot-mcp

✨ Key Features

• Polyglot Monorepo Support: Manages frontend workspaces (package.json) and backend services (pom.xml, build.gradle, Cargo.toml) in a single tool.

• Targeted Version Selection: Interactive modal to search, filter, and pick any published version ([V]), not just latest.

• Runtime Ecosystem Switching: Switch instantly between Node.js, Maven, Cargo and Gradle modules ([E]).

• Release Channels: Configurable channels (stable vs. all) with automatic filtering of pre-releases (alpha, beta, rc, snapshot).

• Internal Dependencies: Aligns workspace modules to their local versions and looks up internal packages (@my-org/*, com.mycompany.*) only in private registries — never on a public one.

• Rollback on Failure: If installation, the workspace link check or verification fails, every touched file is restored.

• Safety Guardrails & Verification: Automatic post-update verification (npm install, mvn test-compile, gradle testClasses) with rollback safety and major-version warnings.

• Agentic & CI/CD Ready: Full headless CLI (--json) and native Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for integration with autonomous AI coding agents.

• Bilingual Interface: Instant language toggle between English and German ([L]).

• Modular Architecture: Decoupled domain core and ports/adapters (hexagonal architecture).

📦 Supported Package Managers

Planned: Support for Python (pip, poetry, uv) and yarn is on the roadmap.

🚀 Installation & Quick Start

1. Instant Run via npx (No Installation Required)

npx @dennisrepa/elevate

For AI Agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity):
Register Elevate directly in your agent's MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elevate": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@dennisrepa/elevate", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

2. Standalone Binary (Zero Node.js Dependency)

For environments without a Node.js runtime:

1. Download elevate.exe (Windows) or elevate-linux from GitHub Releases.

2. Execute directly:

   .\elevate.exe

3. Global Installation

npm install -g @dennisrepa/elevate
elevate

4. Project Integration

Add as a development dependency:

npm install -D @dennisrepa/elevate

Add an entry to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "elevate": "elevate"
  }
}

Run via:

npm run elevate

5. Local Development

npm install
npm run build
npm link

Run locally:

elevate
# or
node dist/cli.js

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts (Interactive TUI)

🤖 Headless CLI & MCP Server

1. Headless CLI (--json)

Run non-interactive commands for scripting and CI/CD pipelines:

# Discover all modules in the repository
elevate modules --json

# Scan dependencies for available updates (exits with code 1 if updates found)
elevate scan --ecosystem=npm --channel=stable --json

# Query complete published version history for a package
elevate versions chalk --json
elevate versions org.slf4j:slf4j-api --ecosystem=gradle --json

# Dry-run update simulation without modifying files
elevate update --module=apps/web --packages=chalk@5.6.2 --dry-run --json

# Apply updates with explicit major-version approval
elevate update --module=apps/web --packages=pinia@4.0.3 --allow-major --json

2. Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server

Start Elevate as an MCP server via stdio:

elevate mcp

MCP Configuration (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elevate": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@dennisrepa/elevate", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available MCP Tools:

• elevate_discover_modules: Discovers repository modules and workspaces.

• elevate_scan: Scans dependencies for outdated packages against registries.

• elevate_get_versions: Fetches published version history from registry.

• elevate_apply_updates: Applies targeted updates with verification and guardrails.

• elevate_verify: Runs module-specific build and test verification checks.

⚙️ Configuration

Elevate operates with zero configuration by default. Optional settings can be defined in elevate.config.json in the repository root:

{
  "channel": "stable",
  "locale": "en",
  "internalScopes": ["@my-org", "com.mycompany"],
  "mavenPlugins": { "help": "3.5.2", "versions": "2.22.0" },
  "postUpdateScript": "npm test",
  "postUpdateLabel": "Run test suite"
}

Detailed parameter references are available in docs/en.md and docs/de.md.

🧭 Scope and known limits

• npm and pnpm for Node.js. Elevate drives npm and pnpm (pnpm 9 to 12, lockfileVersion 9). Repositories managed by Yarn or Bun are refused (scans and updates say why and change nothing); Maven modules in the same repository still work.

• pnpm specifics. catalog: entries are updated where they are declared, in pnpm-workspace.yaml. A plain range on a workspace module (^1.0.0) is listed as not linked and never rewritten to workspace:, because pnpm resolves it from the registry. Elevate does not read pnpm settings such as minimumReleaseAge or the approval of build scripts, so pnpm may refuse an offered version; the update is then rolled back with pnpm's message. pnpm 8 and older, Windows and shared-workspace-lockfile=false are not covered.

• Broken configuration stops Elevate. An elevate.config.json that is not valid JSON, not an object, or whose internalScopes is not a list of strings is reported and Elevate exits with code 1, because ignoring it would switch off the protection of internal packages. Without any configuration file Elevate works with defaults.

• Dependency sections. dependencies, devDependencies and optionalDependencies are covered. peerDependencies and overrides are never changed.

• Cargo. Requirements are raised keeping their precision, so a loose "1" only shows breaking updates; wildcard and compound requirements (*, >=1.2, <2), git and external path dependencies are left alone. Lock-file-only updates ([Lock]) are offered for direct dependencies when Cargo.lock is behind a requirement that already allows a newer release; transitive crates are not, and a crate with a pending manifest update shows only that candidate. Registries that need authentication and [patch] sections are not covered; a vendored or local-registry source replacement is refused rather than bypassed.

• Maven. Maven plugin versions and declarations inside <profiles> are not offered. Dependencies whose version is declared outside the repository (an external parent or BOM) are listed as not offered with the reason.

• Gradle. Gradle 7.6 and newer, Groovy and Kotlin DSL, run with the build's own wrapper or gradle on the PATH (a JDK is needed). A version is changed where its text is found: literals in the build scripts, gradle.properties, ext and local variables, gradle/libs.versions.toml and the plugins block. Dynamic and rich versions (1.+, [1.0,2.0), strictly, reject, prefer), computed versions and versions that only a convention plugin in buildSrc or an included build, an apply from: script or another catalog defines are listed as not offered. The Gradle Wrapper itself is never updated. gradle/verification-metadata.xml is never regenerated, so a build that uses it rolls such an update back. Dependency locks are refreshed for the root build only; an update in an included build or buildSrc that has lock files is refused. Android and Kotlin Multiplatform builds are not verified. Windows is not verified.

📄 License & Sponsorship

Elevate is open-source software licensed under the MIT License.

• Ko-fi: Support on Ko-fi

• npm: npm fund @dennisrepa/elevate