mirago

Catch the fake package names AI coding tools make up — before you try to install them.

Status: 0.1.0 — beta. It works and it's useful; it's also early, so expect rough edges and tell us what's missing.

What it does (in plain words)

When you ask an AI tool (Copilot, Cursor, Claude, and others) to write Python code, it sometimes imports a package that doesn't actually exist — it made the name up. If you try to install it, you waste time chasing a package that was never real.

mirago reads your code, looks at every package it imports, and checks each one against PyPI (the official Python package index). It tells you about two kinds of problem:

1. Doesn't exist — the AI invented the name. (An error.)
2. Exists but looks risky — the name is real, but it was created very recently and is barely downloaded and isn't already used in your project. (A warning — could be a copycat package.)

mirago check your_file.py

If something's fake, you'll see:

🚨 1 hallucination in your_file.py

  Line 1: import fastjson_validator
    → Package 'fastjson_validator' does not exist on PyPI

If everything looks fine, mirago stays quiet (just a short summary).

Install

mirago is a command-line tool. The easiest way is pipx, which installs CLI tools in their own isolated environment:

pipx install mirago

Or with plain pip:

pip install mirago

Requirements: Python 3.10 or newer. mirago works the same on Windows, macOS, and Linux (it's pure Python).

Platform notes

• macOS / Linux: install pipx with pip install --user pipx (or brew install pipx on macOS), then pipx install mirago.
• Windows: in PowerShell, py -m pip install --user pipx then py -m pipx install mirago. Make sure Python is on your PATH (the official python.org installer has a checkbox for this).

Usage

mirago check your_file.py        # check one file
mirago check .                   # check this folder and everything under it
mirago check src/                # check a folder

When you point it at a folder, mirago checks every .py file inside it, skipping noise like .venv, .git, caches, and build folders.

Handy options:

Option	What it does
--fix	Offer to fix a misspelled package name (requets → requests).
--fail-on warning	Make the run fail (exit 1) on warnings too, not just errors.
--json	Print results as JSON, for use by other tools or CI.
--no-cache	Skip the saved results and re-check against PyPI.

The exit code is 1 when problems are found and 0 when clean, so mirago drops straight into automated checks (CI).

What it catches — and what it doesn't (yet)

Catches today:

• Package names that don't exist on PyPI (names an AI made up).
• Real-but-risky packages (brand-new + barely downloaded + not already in your project).
• Common typos of popular packages, with a suggested fix.

Doesn't catch yet (planned):

• Fake function or method names inside real packages (e.g. a method that doesn't exist).
• Editor / IDE integrations — there are none yet; mirago is a command-line tool for now.
• Catching mistakes live, as an AI assistant writes them.

A safety note: if PyPI can't be reached, mirago assumes your packages are fine rather than raising a false alarm. It would rather miss occasionally than cry wolf.

Roadmap & contributing

Curious where this is going, or want to help? Start here:

• ROADMAP.md — the goal, the long-term plan, and what's next (in priority order).
• CONTRIBUTING.md — how to set up, run the checks, and how the code is laid out.
• docs/DEVLOG.md — a plain-language history of what changed and why.
• CHANGELOG.md — the release notes.

Quick start for contributors:

git clone https://github.com/ddsyasas/mirago
cd mirago
pip install -e ".[dev]"   # install with the developer tools
pytest                    # run the tests (live-PyPI tests are skipped by default)
mirago check tests/fixtures/bad.py

License

MIT. See LICENSE.