Retool
Retool is retiring standalone Assist while folding the same capability into the app builder.
A side-by-side editorial comparison of adjustedCurves and contagionchannels — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
A survival curve package spending release after release correcting its own estimates
adjustedCurves computes confounder-adjusted survival and cumulative incidence curves across a range of estimators - IPTW, AIPTW, Aalen-Johansen, direct standardisation - with support for multiple imputation and bootstrapping. The recent releases are dominated by corrections to numbers the package already reported. Version 0.11.4 fixed cumulative incidence estimates under method="aalen_johansen" that were being read one time step early, which the maintainer notes could differ substantially when events are few, and added risk and event counts to the ggsurvplot conversion including correctly pooled values under multiple imputation.
Three releases in ten days, every one of them a CRAN reviewer's correction rather than a code change.
contagionchannels reached CRAN on 2026-05-08 with a methodology preprint behind it and a cross-quantilogram lineage visible in its citations. What the release feed does not contain is any description of what the package computes: all three entries document the submission process — a licence field reduced from GPL-3 plus file to plain GPL-3, an arXiv reference rewritten in canonical DOI form, and a base-graphics fallback adjusted on a reviewer's request.
adjustedCurves computes confounder-adjusted survival and cumulative incidence curves across a range of estimators - IPTW, AIPTW, Aalen-Johansen, direct standardisation - with support for multiple imputation and bootstrapping. The recent releases are dominated by corrections to numbers the package already reported. Version 0.11.4 fixed cumulative incidence estimates under method="aalen_johansen" that were being read one time step early, which the maintainer notes could differ substantially when events are few, and added risk and event counts to the ggsurvplot conversion including correctly pooled values under multiple imputation.
Multiple imputation is the recurring fault line. The standard error pooling formula was implemented incorrectly until 0.11.2, then fixed again in 0.11.3 for the bootstrapping-plus-imputation combination, and 0.11.4 added the pooled risk table values that had previously been omitted entirely. A separate thread quietly removed capability: tmle and ostmle methods went in 0.10.0, and tmle support was pulled again in 0.11.1 after the concrete package left CRAN. Feature work does happen - risk tables, contrast arguments, the extend_to_last control on IPTW curves - but it is outweighed by correction.
Expect continued estimator-level corrections rather than new methods, and a possible return of tmle support if its upstream dependency returns to CRAN, since the removal was described as temporary.
contagionchannels reached CRAN on 2026-05-08 with a methodology preprint behind it and a cross-quantilogram lineage visible in its citations. What the release feed does not contain is any description of what the package computes: all three entries document the submission process — a licence field reduced from GPL-3 plus file to plain GPL-3, an arXiv reference rewritten in canonical DOI form, and a base-graphics fallback adjusted on a reviewer's request.
There is no product trajectory to read here yet, only a submission one, and it is unusually well documented — each entry names the reviewer or check that prompted it and quotes the feedback verbatim. That transparency is the one signal available: the maintainer treats review rounds as releases worth publishing rather than squashing. Any judgement about direction will have to wait for a release that changes the package rather than its metadata.
With CRAN acceptance secured, the next release should be the first to carry actual methodological content; until one appears, there is not enough in these entries to say where the package is heading.
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either adjustedCurves or contagionchannels.
Retool is retiring standalone Assist while folding the same capability into the app builder.
WPML made machine translation the default, and its point releases keep chasing WordPress and page builders.
A forest plot package that keeps handing users control of one more graphical detail.
Interval-valued data plotting, spending 2026 making its function names and examples survive CRAN.
A microbiome network model that got itself un-archived by deleting the dependency that killed it.
Pipeline provenance for tidyverse workflows, recording what changed at each step without keeping the data.
See all adjustedCurves alternatives → · See all contagionchannels alternatives →
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Infra & APIs. adjustedCurves and contagionchannels are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. adjustedCurves and contagionchannels are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
Top adjustedCurves alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "adjustedCurves alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/adjustedcurves for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
Top contagionchannels alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "contagionchannels alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/contagionchannels for the full list with editorial commentary on each.