Presend Dependency Security Check

A GitHub Action that checks the dependencies in your package.json or requirements.txt for three supply-chain risks:

• Typosquats (npm and PyPI): a dependency whose name is one or two edits away from a popular package (expres next to express). It uses Presend's typosquat check, whose false-positive rate on the most-used packages is measured and published.
• Suspicious maintainer changes (npm only): a new publisher after a long period of dormancy, the pattern behind the event-stream compromise. It cannot detect a hijacked existing account (ua-parser-js) or a malicious release by the original maintainer (colors.js). A flagged change is a signal for review, not proof of compromise: legitimate handoffs happen.
• Names that do not exist (npm and PyPI): a dependency name that is not on the registry, for instance invented by an AI model, is reported as an issue.
• New packages (npm and PyPI): a dependency first published less than 30 days ago (on PyPI, the age of the oldest release still published) is reported as a warning, which does not fail the job. A recent package is often legitimate; it is also where invented and look-alike names get registered. These two signals come with the maintainer-change check: removing maintainer from checks removes them too.
• Known vulnerabilities (npm and PyPI) of the version you use, straight from OSV.dev.

It is not a malware scanner and does not analyse package code: use it alongside one.

No signup, no API key, no paid tiers (per-minute rate limits apply). The action sends package names to the Presend API and package names with versions to OSV.dev; it never sends your code. Its requests identify themselves with the User-Agent presend-check-action.

Teams: we are testing a paid version (a comment on every pull request that changes a dependency, higher limits, measurements re-run with every release). Nothing is for sale yet: join the waitlist. This action stays free.

Usage

npm

- uses: presendapp/presend-check-action@v1
  with:
    ecosystem: 'npm'                              # optional, this is the default
    manifest-path: 'package.json'                 # optional, defaults to package.json
    checks: 'typosquat,maintainer,vulnerability'  # optional, defaults to all three
    fail-on-issue: 'true'                         # optional, 'false' to only report
    fail-on-incomplete: 'false'                   # optional, 'true' to fail when some checks could not run

Python / PyPI

- uses: presendapp/presend-check-action@v1
  with:
    ecosystem: 'pypi'
    manifest-path: 'requirements.txt'   # optional, defaults to requirements.txt

The publisher-change analysis is npm-only: in pypi mode the same check reports only names that do not exist and new packages.

Full example workflow:

name: Dependency security check
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  check-npm:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
      - uses: presendapp/presend-check-action@v1

  check-python:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
      - uses: presendapp/presend-check-action@v1
        with:
          ecosystem: 'pypi'

What it does

The action reads the direct dependencies of the manifest (dependencies and devDependencies for npm). Names are checked in batches (100 per typosquat request, 20 per maintainer request) and all versions are sent to OSV.dev in a single request, so even a large manifest needs only a few requests. Rate limits are per minute: if one is reached, the action waits and retries before giving up.

Which version is checked. For npm, the installed version from package-lock.json when it sits next to package.json. Otherwise the version written in the manifest; for a range such as ^1.2.3 or >=1.2, that is its lower bound, labelled as such in the output, because the installed version may already include the fix. A dependency without a version is reported as not checked for vulnerabilities.

Incomplete results. When a check cannot run (rate limit, network error), the action says so with a warning and RESULT INCOMPLETE, and never reports a clean result for checks that did not run. This does not fail the job unless fail-on-incomplete is 'true'.

If any package is flagged and fail-on-issue is 'true' (the default), the step fails.

Source

This action wraps the public Presend API. Full API docs, source, and the underlying endpoints: github.com/presendapp/presend-source