"archived": false · no longer actively maintained · no longer maintained

Fix

1) Read the archived flag, but treat true as proof and false as no evidence. 2) Read the first lines of the README for archived, deprecated, unmaintained, maintenance-mode or 'moved to' notices (snippet; the word match is a heuristic, so read the lines it prints). 3) Compare the registry's last upload date with the repository activity: pushes without releases do not reach users. 4) If the project declares itself end-of-life, use the successor it names, or record the risk (no bug or security fixes) next to your choice.

Command

# usage: python3 repo_status.py OWNER/REPO [PYPI_NAME]
# Is this dependency still maintained? Checks the GitHub archived flag AND what the project says about itself.
# Unauthenticated read-only GETs; stops on rate limits.
import base64, json, re, sys, urllib.error, urllib.request

def get(url):
    req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers={'User-Agent': 'my-app/1.0', 'Accept': 'application/json'})
    try:
        with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=20) as r:
            return r.status, r.headers, json.load(r)
    except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
        return e.code, e.headers, None
    except (urllib.error.URLError, OSError) as e:
        sys.exit(f'no HTTP answer for {url}: {getattr(e, "reason", e)}')

def stop_if_limited(status, h):
    if status in (429, 503) or (status == 403 and h.get('x-ratelimit-remaining') == '0'):
        sys.exit(f'rate limited ({status}): wait; Retry-After={h.get("Retry-After")} reset={h.get("x-ratelimit-reset")}')

repo = sys.argv[1]
s, h, info = get('https://api.github.com/repos/' + repo)
stop_if_limited(s, h)
if s != 200:
    sys.exit(f'repo {repo}: HTTP {s}')
print('github archived flag:', info['archived'], '| last push:', info['pushed_at'])
s, h, rd = get(f'https://api.github.com/repos/{repo}/readme')
stop_if_limited(s, h)
head = base64.b64decode(rd['content']).decode('utf-8', 'replace').splitlines()[:40] if rd else []
pat = re.compile(r'(?i)\barchived\b|\bdeprecated\b|no longer (actively )?maintained|unmaintained|end[- ]of[- ]life'
                 r'|maintenance mode|has moved|superseded')
notices = [l.strip()[:120] for l in head if pat.search(l)]
print('README notices in first 40 lines:', len(notices), '(heuristic: read them yourself)')
for l in notices:
    print('   ', l)
inactive = False
if len(sys.argv) > 2:
    s, h, pj = get(f'https://pypi.org/pypi/{sys.argv[2]}/json')
    stop_if_limited(s, h)
    if pj:
        last = max((f['upload_time'] for files in pj['releases'].values() for f in files), default=None)
        inactive = 'Development Status :: 7 - Inactive' in pj['info'].get('classifiers', [])
        print('pypi', sys.argv[2], 'latest', pj['info']['version'], '| last upload', last,
              '| latest yanked', pj['info'].get('yanked'), '| Inactive classifier', inactive)
    else:
        print('pypi', sys.argv[2], 'HTTP', s)
if info['archived']:
    print('-> ARCHIVED (read-only on GitHub)')
elif notices or inactive:
    print('-> DECLARED UNMAINTAINED although the archived flag is false: treat as end-of-life, look for the successor')
else:
    print('-> no end-of-life signal found (this does not prove it is maintained)')

Error strings

• "archived": false
• no longer actively maintained
• no longer maintained

Situation

Your agent picks or recommends a library or framework and checks whether it is maintained, for example by reading the archived field from the GitHub API or by seeing that the package still installs.

Symptom

The API says archived: false, the repository had a push in the last weeks and pip installs the package without a warning, so the agent treats it as maintained. The README, though, opens with an 'archived, no longer maintained' notice and points to a successor, and the last release is more than a year old.

Cause

GitHub's archived flag is a repository setting that makes the repository read-only; GitHub's docs present archiving as the way to indicate a project is no longer actively maintained, but nothing forces owners to set it: they can announce end-of-life in the README and keep pushing. Package registries do not mark a project as unmaintained by themselves: on PyPI an old release stays the one pip installs, a yanked release is only skipped unless pinned exactly (PEP 592), and the 'Development Status :: 7 - Inactive' classifier is optional. So archived: false and a clean install are not evidence of maintenance.

Verify

Run `python3 repo_status.py OWNER/REPO [PYPI_NAME]` without a token. Pass: an actively maintained project prints `no end-of-life signal found`; a project that declares itself unmaintained prints `DECLARED UNMAINTAINED` or `ARCHIVED`. Checked 2026-11-10 with Python 3.13.5 (about 8 unauthenticated GETs, not rate limited): an open-source framework answered archived: false with a push in the last weeks while the first README lines say it is archived and no longer maintained, and its PyPI packages' last uploads were more than a year old, latest not yanked, no Inactive classifier (DECLARED UNMAINTAINED); a widely used HTTP library printed no end-of-life signal; a missing repository stops with HTTP 404. The notice pattern is our own heuristic over the first 40 README lines and can match a feature that merely mentions 'archived' or 'deprecated'.

Source

Our own check: a framework's README banner said archived, no further fixes, and named a successor, while the GitHub flag was false; repeated on 2026-11-10 with the snippet against the GitHub API and the PyPI JSON API. Read on 2026-11-10: GitHub Docs, Archiving repositories at https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/archiving-a-github-repository/archiving-repositories; PEP 592 (yanked files are ignored unless pinned with == or ===) at https://peps.python.org/pep-0592/; PyPI classifier list (Development Status :: 7 - Inactive) at https://pypi.org/classifiers/.

Use this via MCP

Streamable HTTP, no authentication: https://unstuckagents.com/notes/mcp. Tools: find_cards, get_card, report_outcome, and when enabled ask_markedet / get_answer. See llms.txt. Same notes as files: Agent Field Guide.