Most software doesn't die with a bang; it fades away silently. Packages stop getting releases, repositories get archived, and CI pipelines stay red for months. Developers often only notice when a security alert appears with 'no fix available,' revealing that their dependency has been dead for years. To combat this silent decay, developer anishisbusy created NecroKit, a tool designed to plainly identify dying software, provide proof, and suggest next steps. Built for the Skeleton Crew category of the Kiroween 2026 hackathon, NecroKit is now live for community testing.

Evidence Over Algorithms

NecroKit operates on a strict principle: every finding must cite concrete evidence. Unlike tools that rely on machine learning models to guess at a package's health, NecroKit links each finding directly to the facts behind it. In the live demo, clicking an evidence chip takes you straight to the registry page or GitHub repository that triggered the warning. This transparency builds trust, ensuring users can verify the verdict themselves. The tool also adheres to a 'missing is not guessed' rule; if an API call fails or hits a rate limit, the report lists the source as 'Could not check' rather than assuming health.

How Kiro Shaped the Build

The development process was heavily influenced by Kiro, the AI-powered IDE used for the hackathon. The developer wrote three specific specs in .kiro/specs/: one for the core platform, one for 'Package Graveyard' (npm analysis), and one for 'Repo Reaper' (GitHub analysis). These specs enforced a contract where the core logic remained independent of external services like npm or GitHub. Each application added only its own adapter and rules. Kiro's steering files acted as house rules, preventing the AI from weakening tests to make them pass and ensuring no external API calls were made without timeouts and fallbacks.

Real-World Impact and Fixes

During the final testing phase, a bug was discovered where the request library scored 79, labeled as 'healthy,' despite having no pushes in over two years and open pull requests from nearly a decade ago. The collector had data on pushed_at but no rule was using it. The developer quickly added a no-recent-push rule, which adjusted the score to 67, correctly marking it as 'at-risk.' This rapid iteration highlighted the value of the property-based tests using fast-check, which ensured the score remained between 0 and 100 and wasn't influenced by the order of findings.

Key Takeaways

  • NecroKit is open-source and available at github.com/Sarcastic-Soul/necrokit.
  • The tool uses a 'Undertaker' Kiro Crew app for scheduled scans and historical tracking.
  • Property-based testing caught a real bug where score calculation depended on finding order.
  • The demo starts with a recorded scan of an abandoned package, requiring no account or API key.

The Bottom Line

NecroKit is a refreshing reminder that in dependency management, transparency beats black-box predictions. By refusing to guess and insisting on clickable proof, it solves the trust deficit that plagues many automated audit tools.

What's Next

The developer plans to expand NecroKit's capabilities to scan entire package.json files at once, providing a comprehensive 'graveyard map' for projects rather than analyzing packages one by one. Community members are encouraged to test the tool with their own suspected dead dependencies and share the results.

Try It Yourself

You can explore NecroKit without any setup barriers. Visit https://necrokit-demo.vercel.app to start with a pre-recorded scan. Try checking left-pad or request to see how the tool handles famous abandoned packages. Switch to the 'Repo Reaper' tab to paste any GitHub URL and analyze repository health. For local development, clone the repo and run pnpm install followed by pnpm dev to start the server.