stackscan

StackScan

Automatically detect the tech stack of any project and generate structured output (JSON, Markdown, or badges).
Designed for portfolios, READMEs, dashboards, and CI automation.

StackScan scans a repository (dependencies + file structure), normalizes detected technologies into categories, and maps them to logos with sensible fallbacks.

Features

• 🔍 Detect dependencies from package.json
• 🖼 Built-in SVG logos with graceful fallbacks
• 💾 Generate JSON, Markdown, and asset files
• 🎨 Support for Brand, White, Black, or Custom color modes
• 🤖 Automates Portfolio / Monorepo README updates

Install

One-off (recommended)

npx stackscan@latest

Global

npm install -g stackscan
stackscan

Usage

• Prepare Input:
  • Place a folder for each desired project inside public/stackscan/.
  • Each folder should contain a package.json file.
• Run Scan:

npx stackscan scan

Add Command

You can also add a project from anywhere on your disk using the CLI. You can point to a package.json file OR a project directory:

# Point to a file
npx stackscan add ./path/to/package.json

# Point to a folder (automatically finds package.json)
npx stackscan add ../my-project

This will copy the package.json into a new folder inside public/stackscan/ (e.g., public/stackscan/my-project/), handling name collisions automatically.

This will:

• Scan all projects in public/stackscan/.
• Generate stack.json and stack.md inside each project folder.
• Copy logo assets to public/assets/logos/.
• Update your root README.md with a "My Projects" section.

Options

# Use white logos
npx stackscan scan --color white

# Use black logos
npx stackscan scan --color black

# Use brand colors (default)
npx stackscan scan --color brand

Dependabot & Security

When hosting package.json files for analysis, security tools like Dependabot may incorrectly flag them as vulnerable dependencies of your project.

To prevent this, StackScan will automatically rename any package.json found in public/stackscan/ to _package.json.

• Dependabot ignores _package.json.
• StackScan prioritizes reading _package.json on future runs.

Output

For each project in public/stackscan/, a stack.json is generated in the same folder.

Example stack.json:

[
  {
    "name": "TypeScript",
    "slug": "typescript",
    "logo": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/benjamindotdev/stackscan/main/public/assets/logos/language/typescript.svg",
    "relativePath": "public/assets/logos/language/typescript.svg",
    "color": "#3178C6"
  },
  {
    "name": "Next.js",
    "slug": "next",
    "logo": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/benjamindotdev/stackscan/main/public/assets/logos/frameworks/nextjs.svg",
    "relativePath": "public/assets/logos/frameworks/nextjs.svg",
    "color": "#000000"
  }
]

Anything without a known logo still renders cleanly using category defaults (e.g. a lock icon for auth).

Logo resolution

StackScan resolves logos in the following order:

• Built-in curated registry
• Known aliases (e.g. next-auth → Auth.js)
• External icon registries (when available)
• Category fallback icon (e.g. auth → lock)

This guarantees usable output even when a logo is missing.

GitHub Actions (optional)

Use StackScan in CI to keep stack metadata up to date:

name: stackscan
on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  stackscan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npx stackscan scan

What StackScan does not do

• ❌ It does not execute or analyze runtime code
• ❌ It does not attempt to infer architectural quality
• ❌ It does not require network access to be useful

This keeps it fast, safe, and CI-friendly.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — especially:

• new detection rules
• logo mappings and aliases
• edge cases (monorepos, uncommon stacks)

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development workflow and guidelines.

Credits

Special thanks to these amazing icon libraries that make StackScan possible:

• Simple Icons – The primary source for brand logos and hex colors.
• Lucide – Provides the beautiful category fallback icons.

License

MIT