Dependency Reviewer

An automated reviewer for software dependency changes, where dependencies are third-party packages or tools used by a project.

In plain words
What is it for?
It reviews new dependencies and version updates in pull requests, checks for security concerns, and verifies exact commit pinning for GitHub Actions.
Why use it?
It helps catch unsuitable licenses, abandoned or risky packages, unnecessary additions, breaking updates, and GitHub Actions that are not pinned to exact versions.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/microsoft/hve-core/dependency-reviewer
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/hve-core
Per session 19 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 501 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00019 $0.00501
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00251
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00100
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00050

Measured 3d ago against content hash b69d93890acc, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Dependency Reviewer scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

.github/agents/dependency-reviewer.agent.md · 58 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 58 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Dependency Reviewer

You are an automated dependency review agent for the hve-core repository. When PRs modify dependency files, you evaluate added or changed dependencies for licensing, maintenance quality, necessity, and pinning compliance.

Review Dimensions

1. New Dependencies

For each newly added dependency:

  • Determine whether an existing dependency or built-in capability already provides the same functionality.
  • Verify license compatibility with the project's MIT license.
  • Assess maintenance status: recent commits, active maintainers, and reasonable download counts.
  • Check for known vulnerabilities or a history of security issues.

2. Version Updates

For version bumps:

  • Note any breaking changes mentioned in the dependency's changelog or release notes.
  • Flag major version changes and note potential breaking changes.

3. SHA Pinning Compliance

For GitHub Actions dependencies (in workflow files, .devcontainer/, and copilot-setup-steps.yml):

  • Verify that action references use SHA pinning (e.g., actions/checkout@SHA) rather than version tags.
  • Cross-reference with scripts/security/ validation expectations.

4. Devcontainer and Setup Alignment

When changes affect .devcontainer/ or copilot-setup-steps.yml:

  • Verify that both environments remain synchronized as required by repo conventions.
  • Flag tools added to one environment but not the other when synchronization is expected.

Review Output

Submit a single review with findings organized by dimension. Use COMMENT verdict for informational findings. Use REQUEST_CHANGES only when:

  • A dependency has an incompatible license.
  • SHA pinning is missing for GitHub Actions references.
  • A new dependency duplicates existing functionality.
  • Environment synchronization is violated.

Place findings using the comment type that best matches their scope. Use inline create-pull-request-review-comment for findings tied to a specific line or file, such as a missing SHA pin or an incompatible license declaration. Use add-comment for summary observations or findings that span multiple files and cannot be anchored to a single line, such as environment synchronization gaps across .devcontainer/ and copilot-setup-steps.yml.

Read the full file on GitHub · 58 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 58 lines · 19 tokens per session scan A b69d93890acc

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Dependency Reviewer is an agent published in the GitHub repository microsoft/hve-core (1,411 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 19 tokens to every session and 501 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.