Public record
Software health reportschema 0.34.0 · metrics 2.10.0 · 2026-09-17 02:08 UTC

release-it / keep-a-changelog

Keep a Changelog plugin for release-it

JavaScriptMIT★ 37 stars⑂ 13 forkssince May 2020View on GitHub ↗
KindLibraryhow this is determined

release-it/keep-a-changelog holds a health index of 56 out of 100, placing it in the Moderate band. It scores highest on Vitality (68/100) and lowest on AI Readiness (23/100). It was last updated 2 days ago. A single contributor accounts for most of its recent work.

56
overall / 100
Moderate

Software health index

Metrics are grouped into weighted categories on one standardized 1–100 scale. Overall starts as their weighted mean, calibrated against the distribution of the public record so bands carry percentile meaning; when public evidence triggers the High-Risk Jurisdiction Policy, the rating is adjusted and receives an At Risk ceiling of 34.

56
Exceptional93-100The record's top tier (≈ top 5%); essentially all checked criteria met
Excellent80-92Strong across the board; minor gaps
Good65-79Healthy; gaps are limited and manageable
Moderate50-64Acceptable with notable gaps; review recommended
Weak35-49Material weaknesses across several areas
At Risk20-34Significant weaknesses; adoption warrants caution
Critical1-19Severe problems (abandoned, single-maintainer, no hygiene)
VitalityCommunity &AdoptionSustainability &GovernanceEngineeringQualitySecurityAI Readiness

Score profile

Each axis is a category. The shape matters more than the average — a healthy subject fills the whole shape, while a spike-and-crater profile means strength in one dimension is masking risk in another.

The weighted overall 54 is calibrated to 56 on the published index scale (record calibration 2026-08-02).

Ownership

Release It!Organization
53 followers7 public repossince Jan 2019

This repository is backed by an organization — shared, accountable stewardship that can outlive any single maintainer.

Package ecosystems

RegistryPackageVersionDownloads / moVersionsLast publishTags
npm@release-it/keep-a-changelog8.0.129,091232 days agoreleaserelease-itrelease-it-pluginkeep-a-changelogchangelogchangesunreleased

Metrics by category

Vitality

Is the project alive — is code being written and are releases shipping?

68Good · 21% of overall

Development activity

57Moderate
How it's scored
36/36Push recency — last push 2 days ago
3.5/36Commit cadence — 5/52 weeks with commits
10.8/18Commit volume — 15 commits in the last year
7/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Maintained — 9 commit(s) and 0 issue activity found in the last 90 days -- score normalized to 7
Inputs used
commits_last_year15
human_commit_share1
days_since_last_push2
active_weeks_last_year5

Release discipline

84Excellent
How it's scored
27/27Ships releases — 23 releases published
36/36Release recency — latest release 2 days ago
12.6/27Release cadence — a release every ~177.5 days
0/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Signed-Releases — no data
Inputs used
releases_count23
latest_release_tag8.0.1
releases_from_tagsno
days_since_latest_release2
mean_days_between_releases177.5
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): OpenSSF Scorecard: Signed-Releases. Remaining weights renormalized.

Community & Adoption

Does the project have users, downloads, attention, and a welcoming setup for contributors?

51Moderate · 17% of overall

Popularity & adoption

38Weak
How it's scored
25.2/60Stars — 37 stars
9/25Forks — 13 forks
3.3/15Watchers — 5 watchers
Inputs used
forks13
stars37
watchers5
growth_stateunverified
growth_factor_pct100
growth_unverified_reasonno_history

Community health

50Moderate
How it's scored
22.5/22.5README
22.5/22.5License — recognized license (MIT)
0/18CONTRIBUTING guide
0/13.5Code of conduct
0/7.2Issue template
0/6.3PR template
Inputs used
has_readmeyes
has_licenseyes
readme_badges0
has_contributingno
has_issue_templateno
has_code_of_conductno
readme_badge_services—
has_pull_request_templateno

Ecosystem adoption (downloads)

74Good
How it's scored
59.5/80Monthly downloads — 29,091 downloads/month across npm
0/20Registry dependents — not reported by this ecosystem
Inputs used
packages@release-it/keep-a-changelog
dependents—
ecosystemsnpm
total_downloads—
monthly_downloads29,091
unverified_packages_excluded—
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Registry dependents. Remaining weights renormalized.

Sustainability & Governance

Will the project survive its people — bus factor, responsiveness, who backs it, and package upkeep?

65Good · 23% of overall

Maintainer resilience (bus factor)

34At Risk
How it's scored
9/54Bus factor — 1 contributor(s) cover half of all commits
5.1/22.5Commit distribution — top contributor authored 77% of commits
13.5/13.5Contributor breadth — 15 contributors
6/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Contributors — project has 2 contributing companies or organizations -- score normalized to 6
Inputs used
bus_factor1
contributors_sampled15
top_contributor_share0.774

Issue & PR responsiveness

80Excellent
How it's scored
42/42Issue resolution — 100% of issues closed
26.5/30PR acceptance — 15/17 decided PRs merged
0/13Newcomer PR acceptance — no first-time contributor's PR decided in 30d
1.5/15OpenSSF Scorecard: Code-Review — Found 3/30 approved changesets -- score normalized to 1
Inputs used
merged_prs15
open_issues0
closed_issues24
prs_merged_7d0
prs_decided_7d0
prs_merged_30d0
prs_decided_30d0
issue_closed_ratio1
closed_unmerged_prs2
first_time_authors_30d0
first_time_prs_merged_30d0
first_time_prs_decided_30d0
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Newcomer PR acceptance. Remaining weights renormalized.

Ownership & stewardship

61Moderate
How it's scored
30/30Ownership backing — organization-owned
0/20Verified domain
12.5/25Owner reach — 53 followers of release-it
18.6/25Track record — 7 public repos, account ~7 yr old
Inputs used
followers53
owner_typeOrganization
is_verifiedno
owner_loginrelease-it
public_repos7
account_age_days2,795

Package maintenance

100Exceptional
How it's scored
25/25Published & resolvable — 1 package(s) on npm
35/35Publish recency — latest publish 2 days ago
20/20Version history — 23 published versions
20/20Not deprecated — active, not deprecated or yanked
Inputs used
packages@release-it/keep-a-changelog
ecosystemsnpm
any_deprecatedno
min_days_since_publish2

Engineering Quality

Are baseline engineering and documentation practices in place?

34At Risk · 19% of overall

Engineering practices

24At Risk
How it's scored
24/24CI workflows — 2 workflow(s)
0/24Tests present
0/16Linter config
0/9.6Pre-commit hooks
0/6.4.editorconfig
0/20OpenSSF Scorecard: CI-Tests — 0 out of 3 merged PRs checked by a CI test -- score normalized to 0
Inputs used
has_ciyes
has_testsno
has_editorconfigno
has_linter_configno
has_precommit_configno

Documentation

50Moderate
How it's scored
30/30README
0/25Documentation directory
0/15Documentation / homepage site
10/10Repository description
0/10Topics
10/10Wiki
Inputs used
topics—
has_wikiyes
homepage—
docs_site—
has_readmeyes
has_docs_dirno
has_descriptionyes

Security

Are visible security and supply-chain practices strong, without unresolved high-risk jurisdiction exposure?

54Moderate · 16% of overall

Security posture

43Weak
How it's scored
7.5/7.5Binary-Artifacts — no binaries found in the repo
0/7.5Branch-Protection — branch protection not enabled on development/release branches
0/2.5CI-Tests — 0 out of 3 merged PRs checked by a CI test -- score normalized to 0
0/2.5CII-Best-Practices — no effort to earn an OpenSSF best practices badge detected
0.8/7.5Code-Review — Found 3/30 approved changesets -- score normalized to 1
1.5/2.5Contributors — project has 2 contributing companies or organizations -- score normalized to 6
10/10Dangerous-Workflow — no dangerous workflow patterns detected
0/7.5Dependency-Update-Tool — no update tool detected
0/5Fuzzing — project is not fuzzed
2.5/2.5License — license file detected
5.2/7.5Maintained — 9 commit(s) and 0 issue activity found in the last 90 days -- score normalized to 7
0/5Packaging — no data
5/5Pinned-Dependencies — all dependencies are pinned
0/5SAST — SAST tool is not run on all commits -- score normalized to 0
0/5Security-Policy — security policy file not detected
0/7.5Signed-Releases — no data
0/7.5Token-Permissions — detected GitHub workflow tokens with excessive permissions
7.5/7.5Vulnerabilities — 0 existing vulnerabilities detected
Inputs used
sourceopenssf_scorecard
checks_evaluated16
scorecard_versionv5.5.0
checks_inconclusive2
scorecard_aggregate4.3
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Packaging, Signed-Releases. Remaining weights renormalized.

Dependency advisories

100Exceptional
How it's scored
35/35Direct dependencies free of known advisories — no direct dependency carries a known advisory
25/25Indirect dependencies free of known advisories — no indirect dependency carries a known advisory
0/40No advisories left outstanding — no advisory carries a publication date
Inputs used
sourceosv
advisories0
affected_packages0
assessed_packages3
unassessed_packages0
affected_by_severitynone
direct_affected_packages0
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): No advisories left outstanding. Remaining weights renormalized. Matched the npm:@release-it/keep-a-changelog@8.0.1 runtime dependency closure — what installing the published package pulls in — 3 packages. Reachability is not analyzed.

AI Readiness

How well is the repo equipped to be developed and maintained with AI coding agents? Carries a deliberately small weight (4%): agent tooling is a real maintenance signal, but a repository with none can still reach 100/100.

23At Risk · 4% of overall

Agent context & guidance

10Critical
How it's scored
0/45Agent instructions — no CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / editor rules
0/15Machine-readable docs (llms.txt)
10.2/40Legible commit history — 16 of 84 human commits state their intent (structured subject or explanatory body)
Inputs used
has_llms_txtno
llms_txt_url—
legible_history_share0.19
agent_instruction_files—
agent_instruction_max_bytes—

Verify loop (build / test / typecheck)

20At Risk
How it's scored
0/18One-command bootstrap
0/22Automated tests
0/11Lint / format config
0/11Static type checking
10/10Reproducible environment — lockfile
0/10Demonstrated agent practice — no agent-authored commits among the last 84
0/8Automated maintenance — no automated dependency updates observed
10/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Pinned-Dependencies — all dependencies are pinned
Inputs used
has_nixno
has_testsno
lockfilespnpm-lock.yaml
has_dockerfileno
typed_languageno
bootstrap_files—
has_devcontainerno
has_linter_configno
typecheck_configs—
agent_commit_share0
toolchain_manifests—
dependency_bot_commit_share0

Code legibility for models

55Moderate
How it's scored
0/45Type-checkable code — JavaScript without a type-check config
55/55Manageable file sizes — 0/2 source files over 60KB
Inputs used
primary_languageJavaScript
largest_source_bytes14,619
source_files_sampled2
oversized_source_files0

Key facts

37GitHub stars
15contributors
15commits, last 12 months
2days since last push
23releases
1bus factor
0open issues
npmpackage ecosystems

Data collection warnings

  • Star history unavailable: GitHub GraphQL error: Resource not accessible by personal access token

More detail

Star and fork history 0 ★ / 13 ⇿
0Stars
13Forks
16Releases

When each star and fork was added, collected from GitHub and bucketed by day. Cumulative growth sits directly above the daily additions it is made of, so the two read against each other: steady organic accretion looks nothing like an abrupt, short-lived burst. Where that difference is measurable, it is reported as growth authenticity.

03581013151312020-052022-072024-10
Major 4Minor 7Patch 4

Each point covers 5 days.

OpenSSF Scorecard 4.3 / 10
4.3aggregate

Independent, tool-agnostic security assessment from the open-source OpenSSF Scorecard. Each check rewards a security practice, not a specific vendor's tool. Checks Scorecard could not determine are marked n/a and excluded from the security score (never counted as zero).Scorecard v5.5.0 · 2026-09-17 02:08 UTC

10Binary-Artifactsno binaries found in the repo
0Branch-Protectionbranch protection not enabled on development/release branches
0CI-Tests0 out of 3 merged PRs checked by a CI test -- score normalized to 0
0CII-Best-Practicesno effort to earn an OpenSSF best practices badge detected
1Code-ReviewFound 3/30 approved changesets -- score normalized to 1
6Contributorsproject has 2 contributing companies or organizations -- score normalized to 6
10Dangerous-Workflowno dangerous workflow patterns detected
0Dependency-Update-Toolno update tool detected
0Fuzzingproject is not fuzzed
10Licenselicense file detected
7Maintained9 commit(s) and 0 issue activity found in the last 90 days -- score normalized to 7
n/aPackagingpackaging workflow not detected
10Pinned-Dependenciesall dependencies are pinned
0SASTSAST tool is not run on all commits -- score normalized to 0
0Security-Policysecurity policy file not detected
n/aSigned-Releasesno releases found
0Token-Permissionsdetected GitHub workflow tokens with excessive permissions
10Vulnerabilities0 existing vulnerabilities detected
Direct dependencies 3
RegistryPackageVersion constraintManifest
npmdetect-newline^4.0.1package.json
npmsemver^7.8.5package.json
npmstring-template^1.0.0package.json
All dependencies 185

Full resolved dependency set from the GitHub dependency graph: 3 direct and 182 indirect (transitive) packages. The transitive closure is complete when the repository commits a lockfile.

RegistryPackageVersionRelation
npmdetect-newline4.0.1direct
npmsemver7.8.5direct
npmstring-template1.0.0direct
npm@inquirer/ansi2.0.8indirect
npm@inquirer/checkbox5.2.5indirect
npm@inquirer/confirm6.3.2indirect
npm@inquirer/core12.0.3indirect
npm@inquirer/editor5.3.3indirect
npm@inquirer/expand5.1.5indirect
npm@inquirer/external-editor3.0.5indirect
npm@inquirer/figures2.0.9indirect
npm@inquirer/input5.1.6indirect
npm@inquirer/number4.2.3indirect
npm@inquirer/password5.2.2indirect
npm@inquirer/prompts8.5.2indirect
npm@inquirer/rawlist5.3.5indirect
npm@inquirer/search4.3.3indirect
npm@inquirer/select5.2.5indirect
npm@inquirer/type4.1.1indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/base641.1.2indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/base6417.67.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/buffers1.2.1indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/buffers17.67.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/codegen1.0.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/codegen17.67.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-core4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-fsa4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-node4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-node-builtins4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-node-to-fsa4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-node-utils4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-print4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/fs-snapshot4.76.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/json-pack1.21.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/json-pack17.67.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/json-pointer1.0.2indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/json-pointer17.67.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/util1.9.0indirect
npm@jsonjoy.com/util17.67.0indirect
npm@octokit/auth-token6.0.0indirect
npm@octokit/core7.0.8indirect
npm@octokit/endpoint11.0.5indirect
npm@octokit/graphql9.0.5indirect
npm@octokit/openapi-types27.0.0indirect
npm@octokit/openapi-types29.0.1indirect
npm@octokit/plugin-paginate-rest14.0.0indirect
npm@octokit/plugin-request-log6.0.0indirect
npm@octokit/plugin-rest-endpoint-methods17.0.0indirect
npm@octokit/request10.0.16indirect
npm@octokit/request-error7.1.2indirect
npm@octokit/rest22.0.1indirect
npm@octokit/types16.0.0indirect
npm@octokit/types18.0.0indirect
npm@phun-ky/typeof2.0.3indirect
npm@sinonjs/commons3.0.1indirect
npm@sinonjs/fake-timers15.4.0indirect
npm@sinonjs/samsam10.0.2indirect
npm@types/parse-path7.1.0indirect
npmagent-base9.0.0indirect
npmansi-regex6.3.0indirect
npmast-types0.13.4indirect
npmasync-retry1.3.3indirect
npmbasic-ftp5.3.1indirect
npmbefore-after-hook4.0.0indirect
npmbundle-name4.1.0indirect
npmc123.3.4indirect
npmchalk5.6.2indirect
npmchardet2.2.0indirect
npmchokidar5.0.0indirect
npmci-info4.4.0indirect
npmcli-cursor5.0.0indirect
npmcli-spinners3.4.0indirect
npmcli-width4.1.0indirect
npmconfbox0.2.4indirect
npmconfbox0.3.1indirect
npmcontent-type3.1.0indirect
npmdata-uri-to-buffer8.0.0indirect
npmdebug4.4.3indirect
npmdefault-browser5.5.1indirect
npmdefault-browser-id5.0.1indirect
npmdefine-lazy-prop3.0.0indirect
npmdefu6.1.7indirect
npmdegenerator7.0.1indirect
npmdestr2.0.5indirect
npmdiff9.0.0indirect
npmdotenv17.4.2indirect
npmescodegen2.1.0indirect
npmesprima4.0.1indirect
npmestraverse5.3.0indirect
npmesutils2.0.3indirect
npmeta4.6.0indirect
npmexsolve1.1.1indirect
npmfast-string-truncated-width3.0.3indirect
npmfast-string-width3.0.2indirect
npmfast-wrap-ansi0.2.2indirect
npmfdir6.5.0indirect
npmfs-monkey1.1.0indirect
npmget-east-asian-width1.6.0indirect
npmget-uri8.0.1indirect
npmgiget3.3.1indirect
npmgit-up8.1.1indirect
npmgit-url-parse16.1.0indirect
npmglob-to-regex.js1.2.0indirect
npmhttp-proxy-agent9.1.0indirect
npmhttps-proxy-agent9.1.0indirect
npmhyperdyperid1.2.0indirect
npmiconv-lite0.7.3indirect
npmip-address10.7.0indirect
npmis-docker3.0.0indirect
npmis-in-ssh1.0.0indirect
npmis-inside-container1.0.0indirect
npmis-interactive2.0.0indirect
npmis-ssh1.4.1indirect
npmis-unicode-supported2.1.0indirect
npmis-wsl3.1.1indirect
npmissue-parser7.0.2indirect
npmjiti2.7.0indirect
npmjson-with-bigint3.5.12indirect
npmlodash.capitalize4.2.1indirect
npmlodash.escaperegexp4.1.2indirect
npmlodash.isplainobject4.0.6indirect
npmlodash.isstring4.0.1indirect
npmlodash.merge4.6.2indirect
npmlodash.uniqby4.7.0indirect
npmlog-symbols7.0.1indirect
npmlru-cache7.18.3indirect
npmmacos-release3.5.1indirect
npmmemfs4.76.0indirect
npmmime-db1.54.0indirect
npmmime-types3.0.2indirect
npmmimic-function5.0.1indirect
npmms2.1.3indirect
npmmute-stream3.0.0indirect
npmnetmask2.1.1indirect
npmnew-github-release-url2.0.0indirect
npmohash2.0.12indirect
npmonetime7.0.0indirect
npmopen11.0.0indirect
npmora9.4.1indirect
npmos-name7.0.0indirect
npmpac-proxy-agent9.1.0indirect
npmpac-resolver9.0.1indirect
npmparse-path7.1.0indirect
npmparse-url9.2.0indirect
npmpathe2.0.3indirect
npmperfect-debounce2.1.0indirect
npmpicomatch4.0.7indirect
npmpkg-types2.3.3indirect
npmpowershell-utils0.1.0indirect
npmpowershell-utils0.2.1indirect
npmprotocols2.0.2indirect
npmproxy-agent8.0.2indirect
npmproxy-agent-negotiate1.1.0indirect
npmproxy-from-env2.1.0indirect
npmquickjs-wasi2.2.0indirect
npmrc93.1.0indirect
npmreaddirp5.1.1indirect
npmrelease-it21.0.3indirect
npmrestore-cursor5.1.0indirect
npmretry0.13.1indirect
npmrun-applescript7.1.0indirect
npmsafer-buffer2.1.2indirect
npmsignal-exit4.1.0indirect
npmsinon22.1.0indirect
npmsmart-buffer4.2.0indirect
npmsocks2.8.10indirect
npmsocks-proxy-agent10.1.0indirect
npmsource-map0.6.1indirect
npmstdin-discarder0.3.2indirect
npmstring-width8.2.2indirect
npmstrip-ansi7.2.0indirect
npmthingies2.6.1indirect
npmtinyglobby0.2.17indirect
npmtree-dump1.1.0indirect
npmtslib2.8.1indirect
npmtype-detect4.0.8indirect
npmtype-detect4.1.0indirect
npmtype-fest2.19.0indirect
npmundici7.29.0indirect
npmuniversal-user-agent7.0.3indirect
npmurl-join5.0.0indirect
npmwildcard-match5.1.4indirect
npmwindows-release7.1.1indirect
npmwsl-utils0.3.1indirect
npmyoctocolors2.2.0indirect
Dependency advisories 0

Installing npm:@release-it/keep-a-changelog@8.0.1 pulls in 3 packages, direct and transitive: 0 carry known advisories, of which 0 are direct dependencies.

No known advisories affect the assessed dependencies.

An advisory means the version recorded in the dependency graph falls inside an advisory’s affected range. Reachability is not analysed, and the graph includes development and test pins — a finding may concern tooling rather than shipped software.

Raw JSON report machine-readable

Feedback

Spotted something off in this report, or have thoughts to share? Wrong measurements, missed tooling, ideas, questions — anything is welcome. Every message is read and gets a response.

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Scores are signals, not warranties. They reflect publicly visible practices on GitHub — not a code audit, and not a security guarantee.

Missing data is excluded and weights renormalized, never scored as zero. Methodology is versioned and open: metrics v2.10.0, schema v0.34.0 — full methodology · metrics wiki.

How one result sits in the wider record: aggregate statistics — npm.