Getting Started with Vibgrate: Your First Drift Scan in 60 Seconds

Zero to DriftScore in One Command

The fastest way to try Vibgrate is to run it directly with npx — no installation, no signup, no configuration:

npx @vibgrate/cli scan

That is it. Vibgrate will:

1. Recursively discover every project in your repository — Node.js/TypeScript, .NET, Python, and Java.
2. Detect your runtime version, target frameworks, and all dependencies.
3. Query the npm, NuGet, PyPI, and Maven registries for the latest stable versions.
4. Compute a deterministic DriftScore (0–100) for each project and for the workspace overall.
5. Print a clear, color-coded report with findings and priority actions.

The whole process typically completes in under 30 seconds for a medium-sized repository.

What You Will See

The text output includes several sections:

Overall Score and Risk Level

At the top, you will see your workspace-level drift score and its risk classification:

• 0–30: Low risk — you are in good shape (little to no drift).
• 31–60: Moderate risk — some attention needed.
• 61–100: High risk — significant upgrade debt.

Score Breakdown

The score is decomposed into four weighted components, each displayed with a visual bar:

• Runtime: How current is your Node.js, .NET, Python, or Java runtime.
• Frameworks: Major-version distance for your core frameworks.
• Dependencies: Age distribution across all packages.
• EOL Risk: Proximity to end-of-life dates.

Per-Project Details

If your workspace contains multiple projects (a monorepo, a backend and frontend, a solution file with several projects), each one gets its own section showing its individual score, detected runtime, framework versions, and dependency breakdown.

Findings

Actionable findings are listed with severity icons — errors, warnings, and notes. Each finding tells you what is wrong and why it matters.

Top Priority Actions

At the bottom, Vibgrate ranks the most impactful upgrades you can make. These are not just 'update package X' — they are prioritised by the combination of risk, effort, and impact on your overall score.

Installing Locally

If you plan to run Vibgrate regularly, install it as a dev dependency:

npm install -D @vibgrate/cli@latest

Then add a script to your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "drift": "vibgrate scan"
  }
}

Now npm run drift gives you a drift report any time you want one.

The Scan Artifact

By default, Vibgrate writes a JSON artifact to .vibgrate/scan_result.json. This file contains the complete raw data — scores, findings, dependency lists, VCS metadata — and can be used for:

• Generating reports in different formats (vibgrate report --format md)
• Comparing against a baseline to track drift over time
• Uploading to Vibgrate Cloud for trend analysis
• Feeding into your own tooling or dashboards

Add .vibgrate/ to your .gitignore — these artifacts are local outputs that get regenerated on every scan.

What Vibgrate Is — and Is Not

Vibgrate is a Code Intelligence Engine. Its purpose is to answer one question with precision: how far behind is this repo, and what should we upgrade first?

It is not a linter, a formatter, a test runner, or a build tool. It does not modify your code. It does not execute your source files. It reads manifests and configuration files, queries public registries, and produces a deterministic score with actionable findings.

Core drift analysis is completely read-only, requires no authentication, and works offline (with some limitations we will cover in a future post).

See your score now. Sign up at dash.vibgrate.com to run your first scan and start tracking drift across your projects — free to get started.