Does this apply to npm packages, PyPI packages, Rust crates, and Go modules?

Yes. The security (dependency scanning, license compliance), testing (coverage, matrix testing across versions), documentation (API docs, changelogs), and CI/CD (automated publishing, signed artifacts) sections apply to every package ecosystem. The specifics of signing differ (npm provenance, PyPI Trusted Publishers, GPG for crates) but the requirement is the same.

What's the most important item for a library?

Semantic versioning discipline. A breaking change shipped as a patch version breaks every consumer who runs `npm update`. The CI/CD section covers versioning and deprecation policies. Pair it with a changelog and a migration guide for every major release — undocumented breaking changes are the #1 reason users abandon libraries.

Do I need an SBOM for a library?

Increasingly yes. An SBOM (software bill of materials) lists every transitive dependency your library pulls in. Enterprise consumers and regulated industries now require it. npm, PyPI, and crates.io all support generating one. The Security section flags this as important for libraries, SDKs, and CLIs.

~25 checks · 4 critical sections

Production Readiness Checklist for Libraries, SDKs & CLIs

Free production readiness checklist for libraries, SDKs, and CLI tools — dependency security, semver, testing, docs, publishing pipeline & more. ~25 checks. No signup.

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Shipping a library, SDK, or CLI is a different problem from shipping a service. Once published, you don't control how or where it runs — so correctness, backwards compatibility, dependency hygiene, and documentation matter more than observability or scaling. A broken library breaks every downstream consumer at once.

This checklist filters the full 92-item framework down to the ~25 checks that genuinely matter for a distributable package. It emphasizes security (dependency scanning, signed releases, license compliance), testing (coverage thresholds, regression tests across supported versions), documentation (API docs, changelogs, migration guides), and a CI/CD pipeline that publishes safely with rollback.

The pattern for libraries is 'distribute then walk away' — once published, your users expect it to keep working. That makes the Testing and CI/CD sections disproportionately important: a bad release reaches every consumer instantly, and an untested release is a bad release.