@varlabs/anchor

Anchor is a lightweight CLI tool to enforce and validate release checklists in development workflows. Inspired by changesets, Anchor ensures all non-code changes—especially environment-specific configurations—are explicitly reviewed before release.

npm

npm i @varlabs/anchor

yarn

pnpm

bun

📦 Features

• ✅ Checklist generation for pull requests/releases

• 🧾 Markdown-based checklists with frontmatter metadata

• 📁 All config and state stored in .anchor/

• 📌 Enforces checklist presence and completion before release

• 🧠 Human-readable checklist names

• 🧪 Built-in validation of checklist structure

• 🛠️ Fully interactive CLI prompts

• 🏗️ Works seamlessly with Git Hooks and CI pipelines

⚙️ Setup

Run this command once in your project to initialize Anchor:

anchor setup

You will be prompted to enter a comma-separated list of environments (e.g., dev, staging, prod) and (optionally) a comma-separated list of project - for monorepos. This creates:

.anchor/
├── config.json        # Contains 
└── checklists/        # Stores markdown

🧾 Checklist Format

Each checklist is a Markdown file with frontmatter like:

---
name: PR #456
description: "Add SSO support"
environments: [dev, staging]
createdAt: 2023-10-01
---

- [ ] Update .env files
- [ ] Run DB migration
- [ ] Validate third-party keys

🛠️ Commands

anchor setup

Interactive setup to create .anchor/config.json.

---

anchor set [--environment <env>] [--projects <projects>]

Creates a new checklist. Prompts you to:

• Name the checklist

• Select environments (from config)

• Select projects (from config)

• Enter comma-separated checklist items

Optional Flags:

• --environment <env>: Filter environments to preselect during prompt

• --projects <projects>: Filter projects (comma seperated list) to preselect during prompt

---

anchor lift [--environment <env>] [--projects <projects>]

Marks checklist(s) as lifted (completed). Automatically:

• Validates format

• Checks if all [ ] boxes are checked

• Deletes checklist if all complete

• Errors if not

Optional Flags:

• --environment <env>: Only lift checklists relevant to the environment

• --projects <projects>: Filter projects (comma seperated list) to preselect during prompt

---

anchor status [--environment <env>]

Shows the current checklist status for all or specific environments.

Output example:

📄 pr-456.md — 1 done / 2 pending
📄 hotfix-sso.md — ✅ Complete and removed

🧪 Validation

Anchor uses strict validation rules for every checklist:

• Valid frontmatter (environments: [...])

• All checklist lines follow - [ ] ... or - [x] ...

🤖 CI / Git Hooks Integration

Use Anchor in your CI pipeline or Git hooks to enforce:

• Checklist existence on PRs

• No incomplete checklists before release

• Fail builds if required environments have unlifted checklists

Example shell check:

anchor status --environment prod

OR

anchor lift --environment prod --projects api,docs

🔧 Config File Example

.anchor/config.json

{
  "environments": ["dev", "staging", "prod"],
  "projects": ["api", "docs", "web", "mobile"]
}

🧑‍💻 License

MIT — Made with ❤️ by devs who hate broken production environments.