Dependabot doesn't update package-lock.json

[marcomura]

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My dependabot configuration is the following:

---
version: 2
updates:
  - package-ecosystem: npm
    directory: "/"
    schedule:
      interval: "daily"

Dependabot is opening PRs for updating npm packages as expected, but it only updates the package.json file and not the package-lock.json file.
Examples:

• Bump dotenv from 16.6.1 to 17.2.2 atlassian/atlascode#905
• Bump @mui/utils from 5.17.1 to 7.3.2 atlassian/atlascode#908

This causes the build action for its PRs to fail because without syncing package-lock.json the command npm ci rightly fails.

Is there a way to allow dependabot to sync the package-lock.json file as well?

Thanks

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[RenzMc]

Dependabot should update package-lock.json, but it can skip it most common causes are unparseable lockfile (invalid JSON), monorepo / npm workspaces where Dependabot is configured only for package.json in a subdirectory, or known bugs with npm lockfile v3 + workspaces; Troubleshooting (step-by-step): 1) validate the lockfile locally (jq . package-lock.json or a JSON validator) and fix/commit any parse errors; 2) confirm your dependabot.yml uses package-ecosystem: "npm" and the correct directory: for each workspace (or add per-workspace entries); 3) reproduce locally with npm ci/npm install to ensure the lockfile can be generated; Pragmatic workarounds: regenerate and push the corrected lockfile manually, or add a GitHub Action that runs on Dependabot PRs (detect github.actor == 'dependabot[bot]') to run npm install and commit package-lock.json back to the PR; If still failing: collect Dependabot/CI logs, Node/npm versions and a minimal repro, then open an issue against dependabot-core with attachments; TL;DR: validate the lockfile → verify Dependabot directory/workspace config → regenerate or automate lockfile updates via Action → file an issue with logs if needed (this flow addresses parsing, workspace layout and v3 lockfile edge cases)

[marcomura]

Thanks for your answer @RenzMc

1. yes, it's a valid JSON file, and it's on the root of the repo together with package.json
2. you can see it from the configuration I've specified above
3. not only npm ci works locally, I have it running for every pull request in pipeline

It looks like my next step should be opening an issue with logs.