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Comparison · Infra & APIs

Depot vs wooldridge

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Depot and wooldridge — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Depot vs wooldridge: at a glance

FeatureDepotwooldridge
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score6.30.0
Sparks · 30d10
Top themesci-cd, build-acceleration, test-intelligence, git-hostingeconometrics, teaching-data, r-package, cran-maintenance
Last editorial update5d ago57m ago
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What is Depot?

Depot keeps absorbing the CI stack — tests, networking, runners, now its own git host.

Depot has moved well past build caching. Test results reached general availability in July with org-wide flaky, slow, and recurring failure analytics plus timing-based shard splitting; Sherlock's AI analysis became available on any run rather than only failed ones; and CI jobs can join a Tailscale tailnet to reach private services. The runner fleet now defaults to macOS 26 on M4 hardware, Depot CI understands GitHub stacked pull requests, and Depot Code — a diskless git server backed by blob storage — entered private beta.

Read the full Depot trajectory →

What is wooldridge?

A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.

wooldridge ships the datasets from Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics so students can load any of them with one command. The data has been essentially complete since the 7th-edition sets landed in 1.4-1; every release since has been about keeping the package on CRAN. The most recent tag exists only to re-run roxygen2 so that documentation URL fixes from the previous version actually reached the .Rd files.

Read the full wooldridge trajectory →

Depot vs wooldridge: editorial side-by-side

D
Depot
INFRA · APIS
6.3

Depot keeps absorbing the CI stack — tests, networking, runners, now its own git host.

◆ Current state

Depot has moved well past build caching. Test results reached general availability in July with org-wide flaky, slow, and recurring failure analytics plus timing-based shard splitting; Sherlock's AI analysis became available on any run rather than only failed ones; and CI jobs can join a Tailscale tailnet to reach private services. The runner fleet now defaults to macOS 26 on M4 hardware, Depot CI understands GitHub stacked pull requests, and Depot Code — a diskless git server backed by blob storage — entered private beta.

◆ Where it's heading

The pattern is absorbing each adjacent piece of the pipeline that Depot's position already gives it data about. It runs the builds, so it owns test timing, so it can balance shards; it runs the jobs, so it can diagnose them; it hosts the runners, so it can wire private networking into them. Depot Code extends the same logic upstream to source hosting, which would close the loop between repository and runner. A quieter parallel thread keeps moving SDK- and dashboard-only settings into the CLI, stated explicitly as making projects configurable by agents and scripts.

◆ Prediction

Depot Code widening past private beta and binding more tightly to CI is the move the rest of the window sets up. The test work is also positioned to go from reporting to selection — skipping tests a change cannot affect — since Depot now holds the timing and failure history that would require, though the entries stop short of saying so.

W
wooldridge
INFRA · APIS
0.0

A textbook data package whose whole job is to stay installable, and whose releases prove how much work that is.

◆ Current state

wooldridge ships the datasets from Wooldridge's Introductory Econometrics so students can load any of them with one command. The data has been essentially complete since the 7th-edition sets landed in 1.4-1; every release since has been about keeping the package on CRAN. The most recent tag exists only to re-run roxygen2 so that documentation URL fixes from the previous version actually reached the .Rd files.

◆ Where it's heading

The maintainer has been systematically shrinking the package's attack surface for years. Dependencies used only for vignette examples were cut after one of them broke its API and triggered a CRAN removal notice; test infrastructure moved from testthat to tinytest and from Travis and AppVeyor to GitHub Actions; datasets were compressed by stripping attributes left over from the Stata imports. The stated goal, written into the 1.4-2 notes, is that this should be the easiest package the maintainer has to look after.

◆ Prediction

Nothing in the recent entries points to new data; the next release will most likely be triggered by another CRAN check failure or by a new edition of the textbook adding datasets.

Alternatives to Depot and wooldridge

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 Depot or wooldridge.

See all Depot alternatives → · See all wooldridge alternatives →

Recent activity from Depot and wooldridge

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 9d agoDepotmacOS 26 is now the default macOS version for GitHub Actions runners
  2. 16d agoDepotDepot CI now supports native GitHub stacked pull requests
  3. 19d agoDepotSet cache retention when creating a project with --cache-policy-keep-days
  4. 20d agoDepotView and edit project details from the Depot CLI
  5. 21d agoDepotTest results are now generally available
  6. 29d agoDepotAI analysis available for all Depot CI workflows and jobs
  7. 1mo agowooldridgeDocs re-compiled so the previous release's URL fixes take effect
  8. 3y agowooldridgeCI moved to GitHub Actions; live-data examples disabled
  9. 3y agowooldridgeDocumentation content and formatting pass
  10. 4y agowooldridgeFour 7th-edition datasets added; tests moved to tinytest
  11. 4y agowooldridgeVignette scope cut to drop heavy and API-unstable dependencies
  12. 7y agowooldridgeVignette repaired after an upstream API rename

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Depot and wooldridge?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Depot is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Depot better than wooldridge?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Depot is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Depot?

Top Depot alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Depot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/depot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to wooldridge?

Top wooldridge alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "wooldridge alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/wooldridge for the full list with editorial commentary on each.