SkepticalDepends

SkepticalDepends is a methodological framework and open-source toolkit designed to evaluate and govern external dependencies in software development. It emphasizes skepticism toward third-party code quality and provenance, providing quantitative risk assessments and governance controls to reduce software supply chain risk.

The term combines skeptical and depends (dependencies), reflecting an approach that questions every dependency rather than assuming trust. The framework is intended to help teams understand dependency risk, track provenance across package managers, and enforce policies that mitigate attacks and breakages from unvetted libraries.

Scope and application: SkepticalDepends applies to common ecosystems such as npm, Python pip, Maven, Rust cargo, and various operating system package managers, as well as CI/CD pipelines. It models dependencies as a graph with edges representing usage relationships and computes risk scores from factors like maintainership activity, vulnerability history, license compliance, provenance and build reproducibility, and update cadence. The framework supports software bill of materials generation, cryptographic provenance, and reproducible builds to verify artifacts.

Architecture and components: The toolkit typically includes an analyzer that inventories dependencies, a policy engine that encodes governance rules (for example, required maintainers, minimum activity, signed artifacts), a reporter for dashboards and alerts, and an integration layer for CI systems and artifact stores. It is designed to work with existing tooling and to complement other security practices.

Standards and governance: SkepticalDepends aligns with industry standards for software supply chain security, including SBOMs, SPDX or CycloneDX, and provenance verification practices. It encourages practices such as dependency pinning, controlled updates, and automated remediation.

See also: software supply chain security, dependency management, provenance, reproducible builds.