Older versions of the Prototype Kit may not run

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Prototypes based on the GOV.UK Prototype Kit v5.0.0 through to v10.0.0 may not run correctly.

When attempting to run the Prototype Kit, you may see the word ‘LIBERTY’ repeated several times, followed by some garbled output.

The Prototype Kit has a dependency on a package of code called ‘colors’. Unfortunately this issue appears to be caused by one of the maintainers of colors purposefully releasing a new version that makes it unusable.

There is no reason to believe that this new version does anything malicious, but it does stop the Prototype Kit from running.

Version 11 and above of the Prototype Kit include a ‘lock file’ which means that installing the Prototype Kit always installs the same version of its dependencies. The lock file means that these versions of the Prototype Kit install an older version of ‘colors’ that does not have this issue.

We strongly recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of the Prototype Kit (v12). If the breaking changes in v12 mean you cannot upgrade to it, you should consider upgrading to v11 instead.

If you need help with the Prototype Kit, contact the GOV.UK Prototype team.

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The unusable version has now been removed from npm, so this should no longer be affecting Prototype Kit users.

We still recommend upgrading to v12 wherever possible.