diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 9264352..8ecf103 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 
    I tried looking around GitHub for existing users, but if this affects you, please don't hesitate to file a FR and I can restore anything deleted too hastily.
 
+ * `stale_package_check()` is also deprecated. Prefer using `lintr::unused_import_linter()` instead. {lintr} will have better maintenance, reliability, and correctness.
+
  * `get_age()` got some substantial improvements.
    + Gives the right age in some cases, e.g. 7 1/366 years for someone born Dec. 22, 2024 as of Dec. 23, 2031 (#23). Accuracy is now confirmed for a full grid of >2 million possible birthday, age combinations.
    + Implementation is improved for about 2x speed-up. This was in service of making the implementation friendlier for static translation to other execution engines (in particular {arrow}, #18). Thanks @TPDeramus for the request and @jonkeane for consulting on acero particulars.
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 20cdb21..6b51afb 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ get_all_plain_calls = function(e) {
 #   packages loaded are actually used
 #' @param con A connection
 stale_package_check = function(con) {
+  warning("This function is deprecated. Use lintr::unused_import_linter() instead")
   code = tryCatch(parse(con), error = identity)
   if (inherits(code, 'error')) {
     cat('Failed to parse R script, please fix syntax errors first\n')
diff --git a/man/funchir-utils.Rd b/man/funchir-utils.Rd
index 3093d37..540eac6 100644
--- a/man/funchir-utils.Rd
+++ b/man/funchir-utils.Rd
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
   \item{dates}{ A vector of \code{Date}s. }
 }
 \value{
-  \code{stale_package_check} reads a file (with \code{\link{readLines}}) and checks which functions are actually used from each loaded package. Currently only checks for \code{library} (i.e., not \code{require}) calls.
+  \code{stale_package_check} (DEPRECATED in favor of lintr::unused_import_linter) reads a file (with \code{\link{readLines}}) and checks which functions are actually used from each loaded package. Currently only checks for \code{library} (i.e., not \code{require}) calls.
 
   \code{embed.mat} inserts a supplied matrix into a (weakly) larger enclosing matrix, typically filled with 0s, at a specified position.
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-utils.R b/tests/testthat/test-utils.R
index 7b40493..dfb8f23 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-utils.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-utils.R
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ test_that('stale_package_check works', {
   stale_package_path <- function(path) test_path('stale_package_test_scripts', path)
 
   expect_output(
-    stale_package_check(stale_package_path('simple.R')),
+    expect_warning(stale_package_check(stale_package_path('simple.R')), "lintr::unused_import_linter"),
     paste(
       c("Functions matched from package stats:",
         paste0("\t", toString(sort(c("density", "rnorm")))),
@@ -15,19 +15,19 @@ test_that('stale_package_check works', {
   )
 
   expect_output(
-    stale_package_check(stale_package_path('use_namespace_call.R')),
+    expect_warning(stale_package_check(stale_package_path('use_namespace_call.R')), "lintr::unused_import_linter"),
     '**No exported functions matched from stats**',
     fixed = TRUE
   )
 
   expect_output(
-    stale_package_check(stale_package_path('wont_parse.R')),
+    expect_warning(stale_package_check(stale_package_path('wont_parse.R')), "lintr::unused_import_linter"),
     'Failed to parse R script, please fix syntax errors first',
     fixed = TRUE
   )
 
   expect_output(
-    stale_package_check(stale_package_path('no_library.R')),
+    expect_warning(stale_package_check(stale_package_path('no_library.R')), "lintr::unused_import_linter"),
     'No library() or require() calls found',
     fixed = TRUE
   )