requiredep

Requiredep is a term used in some software development workflows to describe a mechanism for declaring dependencies that a module requires at execution time or build time. It is not part of a universal standard, but appears in various forms across different ecosystems as a way to make dependency requirements explicit beyond what a package manager records.

In manifest-driven setups, requiredep appears as a dedicated field in a module or package descriptor. For example, a manifest may include an entry such as requiredep: ['libraryA>=1.2.3', 'libraryB'], indicating that the module cannot operate without these packages. Build or loading tools then resolve these dependencies before loading or executing the module, and may emit errors if a required dependency is missing or incompatible.

In code-based approaches, a library may provide an API like requiredep('libraryA', '>=1.2.3'), which the host environment uses to verify availability and version constraints during initialization. This can support static analysis, improved error reporting, and more deterministic startup sequences, particularly in systems with dynamic loading or plugin architectures.

Benefits of requiredep include clearer dependency intent, better tooling support for validation, and reduced risk of runtime failures due to missing dependencies. Limitations include potential duplication with standard dependency declarations, added maintenance overhead, and ambiguity when multiple ecosystems apply conflicting version constraints. Because it is not standardized, support and behavior vary across tools and languages, requiring careful alignment with the host environment.