Synopsis

npmls<package-spec>
alias: list

Description

This command will print to stdout all the versions of packages that are installed, as well as their dependencies when--all is specified, in a tree structure.

Note: to get a "bottoms up" view of why a given package is included in the tree at all, usenpm explain.

Positional arguments arename@version-range identifiers, which will limit the results to only the paths to the packages named. Note that nested packages willalso show the paths to the specified packages. For example, runningnpm ls promzard in npm's source tree will show:

npm@11.7.0 /path/to/npm
└─┬ init-package-json@0.0.4
  └── promzard@0.1.5

It will print out extraneous, missing, and invalid packages.

If a project specifies git urls for dependencies these are shown in parentheses after thename@version to make it easier for users to recognize potential forks of a project.

The tree shown is the logical dependency tree, based on package dependencies, not the physical layout of yournode_modules folder.

When run asll orla, it shows extended information by default.

Configuration

all

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

When runningnpm outdated andnpm ls, setting--all will show all outdated or installed packages, rather than only those directly depended upon by the current project.

json

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.

• Innpm pkg set it enables parsing set values with JSON.parse() before saving them to yourpackage.json.

Not supported by all npm commands.

long

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Show extended information inls,search, andhelp-search.

parseable

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Output parseable results from commands that write to standard output. Fornpm search, this will be tab-separated table format.

global

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into theprefix folder instead of the current working directory. Seefolders for more on the differences in behavior.

• packages are installed into the{prefix}/lib/node_modules folder, instead of the current working directory.
• bin files are linked to{prefix}/bin
• man pages are linked to{prefix}/share/man

depth

• Default:Infinity if--all is set; otherwise,0
• Type: null or Number

The depth to go when recursing packages fornpm ls.

If not set,npm ls will show only the immediate dependencies of the root project. If--all is set, then npm will show all dependencies by default.

omit

• Default: 'dev' if theNODE_ENV environment variable is set to 'production'; otherwise, empty.
• Type: "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)

Dependency types to omit from the installation tree on disk.

Note that these dependenciesare still resolved and added to thepackage-lock.json ornpm-shrinkwrap.json file. They are just not physically installed on disk.

If a package type appears in both the--include and--omit lists, then it will be included.

If the resulting omit list includes'dev', then theNODE_ENV environment variable will be set to'production' for all lifecycle scripts.

include

• Default:
• Type: "prod", "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)

Option that allows for defining which types of dependencies to install.

This is the inverse of--omit=<type>.

Dependency types specified in--include will not be omitted, regardless of the order in which omit/include are specified on the command-line.

link

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Used withnpm ls, limiting output to only those packages that are linked.

package-lock-only

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If set to true, the current operation will only use thepackage-lock.json, ignoringnode_modules.

Forupdate this means only thepackage-lock.json will be updated, instead of checkingnode_modules and downloading dependencies.

Forlist this means the output will be based on the tree described by thepackage-lock.json, rather than the contents ofnode_modules.

unicode

• Default: false on windows, true on mac/unix systems with a unicode locale, as defined by theLC_ALL,LC_CTYPE, orLANG environment variables.
• Type: Boolean

When set to true, npm uses unicode characters in the tree output. When false, it uses ascii characters instead of unicode glyphs.

workspace

• Default:
• Type: String (can be set multiple times)

Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of the current project while filtering by running only the workspaces defined by this configuration option.

Valid values for theworkspace config are either:

• Workspace names
• Path to a workspace directory
• Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all workspaces within that folder)

When set for thenpm init command, this may be set to the folder of a workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up as a brand new workspace within the project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

workspaces

• Default: null
• Type: null or Boolean

Set to true to run the command in the context ofall configured workspaces.

Explicitly setting this to false will cause commands likeinstall to ignore workspaces altogether. When not set explicitly:

• Commands that operate on thenode_modules tree (install, update, etc.) will link workspaces into thenode_modules folder. - Commands that do other things (test, exec, publish, etc.) will operate on the root project,unless one or more workspaces are specified in theworkspace config.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

include-workspace-root

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Include the workspace root when workspaces are enabled for a command.

When false, specifying individual workspaces via theworkspace config, or all workspaces via theworkspaces flag, will cause npm to operate only on the specified workspaces, and not on the root project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

install-links

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

When set file: protocol dependencies will be packed and installed as regular dependencies instead of creating a symlink. This option has no effect on workspaces.

See Also

• package spec
• npm explain
• npm config
• npmrc
• npm folders
• npm explain
• npm install
• npm link
• npm prune
• npm outdated
• npm update

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Last edited byjsoref onOctober 4, 2025