Description

npm gets its configuration values from the following sources, sorted by priority:

Command Line Flags

Putting--foo bar on the command line sets thefoo configuration parameter to"bar". A-- argument tells the cli parser to stop reading flags. Using--flag without specifying any value will set the value totrue.

Example:--flag1 --flag2 will set both configuration parameters totrue, while--flag1 --flag2 bar will setflag1 totrue, andflag2 tobar. Finally,--flag1 --flag2 -- bar will set both configuration parameters totrue, and thebar is taken as a command argument.

Environment Variables

Any environment variables that start withnpm_config_ will be interpreted as a configuration parameter. For example, puttingnpm_config_foo=bar in your environment will set thefoo configuration parameter tobar. Any environment configurations that are not given a value will be given the value oftrue. Config values are case-insensitive, soNPM_CONFIG_FOO=bar will work the same. However, please note that insidescripts npm will set its own environment variables and Node will prefer those lowercase versions over any uppercase ones that you might set. For details seethis issue.

Notice that you need to use underscores instead of dashes, so--allow-same-version would becomenpm_config_allow_same_version=true.

npmrc Files

The four relevant files are:

• per-project configuration file (/path/to/my/project/.npmrc)
• per-user configuration file (defaults to$HOME/.npmrc; configurable via CLI option--userconfig or environment variable$NPM_CONFIG_USERCONFIG)
• global configuration file (defaults to$PREFIX/etc/npmrc; configurable via CLI option--globalconfig or environment variable$NPM_CONFIG_GLOBALCONFIG)
• npm's built-in configuration file (/path/to/npm/npmrc)

Seenpmrc for more details.

Default Configs

Runnpm config ls -l to see a set of configuration parameters that are internal to npm, and are defaults if nothing else is specified.

Shorthands and Other CLI Niceties

The following shorthands are parsed on the command-line:

• -a:--all
• --enjoy-by:--before
• -c:--call
• --desc:--description
• -f:--force
• -g:--global
• --iwr:--include-workspace-root
• -L:--location
• -d:--loglevel info
• -s:--loglevel silent
• --silent:--loglevel silent
• --ddd:--loglevel silly
• --dd:--loglevel verbose
• --verbose:--loglevel verbose
• -q:--loglevel warn
• --quiet:--loglevel warn
• -l:--long
• -m:--message
• --local:--no-global
• -n:--no-yes
• --no:--no-yes
• -p:--parseable
• --porcelain:--parseable
• -C:--prefix
• --readonly:--read-only
• --reg:--registry
• -S:--save
• -B:--save-bundle
• -D:--save-dev
• -E:--save-exact
• -O:--save-optional
• -P:--save-prod
• -?:--usage
• -h:--usage
• -H:--usage
• --help:--usage
• -v:--version
• -w:--workspace
• --ws:--workspaces
• -y:--yes

If the specified configuration param resolves unambiguously to a known configuration parameter, then it is expanded to that configuration parameter. For example:

npmls--par
# same as:
npmls--parseable

If multiple single-character shorthands are strung together, and the resulting combination is unambiguously not some other configuration param, then it is expanded to its various component pieces. For example:

npmls-gpld
# same as:
npmls--global--parseable--long--loglevel info

Config Settings

_auth

• Default: null
• Type: null or String

A basic-auth string to use when authenticating against the npm registry. This will ONLY be used to authenticate against the npm registry. For other registries you will need to scope it like "//other-registry.tld/:_auth"

Warning: This should generally not be set via a command-line option. It is safer to use a registry-provided authentication bearer token stored in the ~/.npmrc file by runningnpm login.

access

• Default: 'restricted' for scoped packages, 'public' for unscoped packages
• Type: null, "restricted", or "public"

When publishing scoped packages, the access level defaults torestricted. If you want your scoped package to be publicly viewable (and installable) set--access=public. The only valid values foraccess arepublic andrestricted. Unscoped packagesalways have an access level ofpublic.

Note: Using the--access flag on thenpm publish command will only set the package access level on the initial publish of the package. Any subsequentnpm publish commands using the--access flag will not have an effect to the access level. To make changes to the access level after the initial publish usenpm access.

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.

allow-same-version

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Prevents throwing an error whennpm version is used to set the new version to the same value as the current version.

audit

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

When "true" submit audit reports alongside the current npm command to the default registry and all registries configured for scopes. See the documentation fornpm audit for details on what is submitted.

audit-level

• Default: null
• Type: null, "info", "low", "moderate", "high", "critical", or "none"

The minimum level of vulnerability fornpm audit to exit with a non-zero exit code.

auth-type

• Default: "legacy"
• Type: "legacy", "web", "sso", "saml", "oauth", or "webauthn"

NOTE: auth-type values "sso", "saml", "oauth", and "webauthn" will be removed in a future version.

What authentication strategy to use withlogin.

before

• Default: null
• Type: null or Date

If passed tonpm install, will rebuild the npm tree such that only versions that were availableon or before the--before time get installed. If there's no versions available for the current set of direct dependencies, the command will error.

If the requested version is adist-tag and the given tag does not pass the--before filter, the most recent version less than or equal to that tag will be used. For example,foo@latest might installfoo@1.2 even thoughlatest is2.0.

bin-links

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Tells npm to create symlinks (or.cmd shims on Windows) for package executables.

Set to false to have it not do this. This can be used to work around the fact that some file systems don't support symlinks, even on ostensibly Unix systems.

browser

• Default: OS X:"open", Windows:"start", Others:"xdg-open"
• Type: null, Boolean, or String

The browser that is called by npm commands to open websites.

Set tofalse to suppress browser behavior and instead print urls to terminal.

Set totrue to use default system URL opener.

ca

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

The Certificate Authority signing certificate that is trusted for SSL connections to the registry. Values should be in PEM format (Windows calls it "Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER)") with newlines replaced by the string "\n". For example:

ca="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nXXXX\nXXXX\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----"

Set tonull to only allow "known" registrars, or to a specific CA cert to trust only that specific signing authority.

Multiple CAs can be trusted by specifying an array of certificates:

ca[]="..."
ca[]="..."

See also thestrict-ssl config.

cache

• Default: Windows:%LocalAppData%\npm-cache, Posix:~/.npm
• Type: Path

The location of npm's cache directory. Seenpm cache

cafile

• Default: null
• Type: Path

A path to a file containing one or multiple Certificate Authority signing certificates. Similar to theca setting, but allows for multiple CA's, as well as for the CA information to be stored in a file on disk.

call

• Default: ""
• Type: String

Optional companion option fornpm exec,npx that allows for specifying a custom command to be run along with the installed packages.

npmexec--package yo--package generator-node--call"yo node"

cert

• Default: null
• Type: null or String

A client certificate to pass when accessing the registry. Values should be in PEM format (Windows calls it "Base-64 encoded X.509 (.CER)") with newlines replaced by the string "\n". For example:

cert="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nXXXX\nXXXX\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----"

It isnot the path to a certificate file, though you can set a registry-scoped "certfile" path like "//other-registry.tld/:certfile=/path/to/cert.pem".

ci-name

• Default: The name of the current CI system, ornull when not on a known CI platform.
• Type: null or String

The name of a continuous integration system. If not set explicitly, npm will detect the current CI environment using the@npmcli/ci-detect module.

cidr

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

This is a list of CIDR address to be used when configuring limited access tokens with thenpm token create command.

color

• Default: true unless the NO_COLOR environ is set to something other than '0'
• Type: "always" or Boolean

If false, never shows colors. If"always" then always shows colors. If true, then only prints color codes for tty file descriptors.

commit-hooks

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Run git commit hooks when using thenpm version command.

depth

• Default:Infinity if--all is set, otherwise1
• 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.

description

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Show the description innpm search

diff

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

Define arguments to compare innpm diff.

diff-dst-prefix

• Default: "b/"
• Type: String

Destination prefix to be used innpm diff output.

diff-ignore-all-space

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Ignore whitespace when comparing lines innpm diff.

diff-name-only

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Prints only filenames when usingnpm diff.

diff-no-prefix

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Do not show any source or destination prefix innpm diff output.

Note: this causesnpm diff to ignore the--diff-src-prefix and--diff-dst-prefix configs.

diff-src-prefix

• Default: "a/"
• Type: String

Source prefix to be used innpm diff output.

diff-text

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Treat all files as text innpm diff.

diff-unified

• Default: 3
• Type: Number

The number of lines of context to print innpm diff.

dry-run

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Indicates that you don't want npm to make any changes and that it should only report what it would have done. This can be passed into any of the commands that modify your local installation, eg,install,update,dedupe,uninstall, as well aspack andpublish.

Note: This is NOT honored by other network related commands, egdist-tags,owner, etc.

editor

• Default: The EDITOR or VISUAL environment variables, or 'notepad.exe' on Windows, or 'vim' on Unix systems
• Type: String

The command to run fornpm edit andnpm config edit.

engine-strict

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If set to true, then npm will stubbornly refuse to install (or even consider installing) any package that claims to not be compatible with the current Node.js version.

This can be overridden by setting the--force flag.

fetch-retries

• Default: 2
• Type: Number

The "retries" config for theretry module to use when fetching packages from the registry.

npm will retry idempotent read requests to the registry in the case of network failures or 5xx HTTP errors.

fetch-retry-factor

• Default: 10
• Type: Number

The "factor" config for theretry module to use when fetching packages.

fetch-retry-maxtimeout

• Default: 60000 (1 minute)
• Type: Number

The "maxTimeout" config for theretry module to use when fetching packages.

fetch-retry-mintimeout

• Default: 10000 (10 seconds)
• Type: Number

The "minTimeout" config for theretry module to use when fetching packages.

fetch-timeout

• Default: 300000 (5 minutes)
• Type: Number

The maximum amount of time to wait for HTTP requests to complete.

force

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Removes various protections against unfortunate side effects, common mistakes, unnecessary performance degradation, and malicious input.

• Allow clobbering non-npm files in global installs.
• Allow thenpm version command to work on an unclean git repository.
• Allow deleting the cache folder withnpm cache clean.
• Allow installing packages that have anengines declaration requiring a different version of npm.
• Allow installing packages that have anengines declaration requiring a different version ofnode, even if--engine-strict is enabled.
• Allownpm audit fix to install modules outside your stated dependency range (including SemVer-major changes).
• Allow unpublishing all versions of a published package.
• Allow conflicting peerDependencies to be installed in the root project.
• Implicitly set--yes duringnpm init.
• Allow clobbering existing values innpm pkg
• Allow unpublishing of entire packages (not just a single version).

If you don't have a clear idea of what you want to do, it is strongly recommended that you do not use this option!

foreground-scripts

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Run all build scripts (ie,preinstall,install, andpostinstall) scripts for installed packages in the foreground process, sharing standard input, output, and error with the main npm process.

Note that this will generally make installs run slower, and be much noisier, but can be useful for debugging.

format-package-lock

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Formatpackage-lock.json ornpm-shrinkwrap.json as a human readable file.

fund

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

When "true" displays the message at the end of eachnpm install acknowledging the number of dependencies looking for funding. Seenpm fund for details.

git

• Default: "git"
• Type: String

The command to use for git commands. If git is installed on the computer, but is not in thePATH, then set this to the full path to the git binary.

git-tag-version

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Tag the commit when using thenpm version command. Setting this to false results in no commit being made at all.

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

global-style

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Causes npm to install the package into your localnode_modules folder with the same layout it uses with the globalnode_modules folder. Only your direct dependencies will show innode_modules and everything they depend on will be flattened in theirnode_modules folders. This obviously will eliminate some deduping. If used withlegacy-bundling,legacy-bundling will be preferred.

globalconfig

• Default: The global --prefix setting plus 'etc/npmrc'. For example, '/usr/local/etc/npmrc'
• Type: Path

The config file to read for global config options.

heading

• Default: "npm"
• Type: String

The string that starts all the debugging log output.

https-proxy

• Default: null
• Type: null or URL

A proxy to use for outgoing https requests. If theHTTPS_PROXY orhttps_proxy orHTTP_PROXY orhttp_proxy environment variables are set, proxy settings will be honored by the underlyingmake-fetch-happen library.

if-present

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, npm will not exit with an error code whenrun-script is invoked for a script that isn't defined in thescripts section ofpackage.json. This option can be used when it's desirable to optionally run a script when it's present and fail if the script fails. This is useful, for example, when running scripts that may only apply for some builds in an otherwise generic CI setup.

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

ignore-scripts

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, npm does not run scripts specified in package.json files.

Note that commands explicitly intended to run a particular script, such asnpm start,npm stop,npm restart,npm test, andnpm run-script will still run their intended script ifignore-scripts is set, but they willnot run any pre- or post-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.

include-staged

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Allow installing "staged" published packages, as defined bynpm RFC PR #92.

This is experimental, and not implemented by the npm public registry.

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.

init-author-email

• Default: ""
• Type: String

The valuenpm init should use by default for the package author's email.

init-author-name

• Default: ""
• Type: String

The valuenpm init should use by default for the package author's name.

init-author-url

• Default: ""
• Type: "" or URL

The valuenpm init should use by default for the package author's homepage.

init-license

• Default: "ISC"
• Type: String

The valuenpm init should use by default for the package license.

init-module

• Default: "~/.npm-init.js"
• Type: Path

A module that will be loaded by thenpm init command. See the documentation for theinit-package-json module for more information, ornpm init.

init-version

• Default: "1.0.0"
• Type: SemVer string

The value thatnpm init should use by default for the package version number, if not already set in package.json.

install-links

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

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

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.

key

• Default: null
• Type: null or String

A client key to pass when accessing the registry. Values should be in PEM format with newlines replaced by the string "\n". For example:

key="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nXXXX\nXXXX\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----"

It isnot the path to a key file, though you can set a registry-scoped "keyfile" path like "//other-registry.tld/:keyfile=/path/to/key.pem".

legacy-bundling

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Causes npm to install the package such that versions of npm prior to 1.4, such as the one included with node 0.8, can install the package. This eliminates all automatic deduping. If used withglobal-style this option will be preferred.

legacy-peer-deps

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Causes npm to completely ignorepeerDependencies when building a package tree, as in npm versions 3 through 6.

If a package cannot be installed because of overly strictpeerDependencies that collide, it provides a way to move forward resolving the situation.

This differs from--omit=peer, in that--omit=peer will avoid unpackingpeerDependencies on disk, but will still design a tree such thatpeerDependenciescould be unpacked in a correct place.

Use oflegacy-peer-deps is not recommended, as it will not enforce thepeerDependencies contract that meta-dependencies may rely on.

link

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

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

local-address

• Default: null
• Type: IP Address

The IP address of the local interface to use when making connections to the npm registry. Must be IPv4 in versions of Node prior to 0.12.

location

• Default: "user" unless--global is passed, which will also set this value to "global"
• Type: "global", "user", or "project"

When passed tonpm config this refers to which config file to use.

When set to "global" mode, 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

lockfile-version

• Default: Version 2 if no lockfile or current lockfile version less than or equal to 2, otherwise maintain current lockfile version
• Type: null, 1, 2, 3, "1", "2", or "3"

Set the lockfile format version to be used in package-lock.json and npm-shrinkwrap-json files. Possible options are:

1: The lockfile version used by npm versions 5 and 6. Lacks some data that is used during the install, resulting in slower and possibly less deterministic installs. Prevents lockfile churn when interoperating with older npm versions.

2: The default lockfile version used by npm version 7. Includes both the version 1 lockfile data and version 3 lockfile data, for maximum determinism and interoperability, at the expense of more bytes on disk.

3: Only the new lockfile information introduced in npm version 7. Smaller on disk than lockfile version 2, but not interoperable with older npm versions. Ideal if all users are on npm version 7 and higher.

loglevel

• Default: "notice"
• Type: "silent", "error", "warn", "notice", "http", "timing", "info", "verbose", or "silly"

What level of logs to report. All logs are written to a debug log, with the path to that file printed if the execution of a command fails.

Any logs of a higher level than the setting are shown. The default is "notice".

See also theforeground-scripts config.

logs-dir

• Default: A directory named_logs inside the cache
• Type: null or Path

The location of npm's log directory. Seenpm logging for more information.

logs-max

• Default: 10
• Type: Number

The maximum number of log files to store.

If set to 0, no log files will be written for the current run.

long

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Show extended information inls,search, andhelp-search.

maxsockets

• Default: 15
• Type: Number

The maximum number of connections to use per origin (protocol/host/port combination).

message

• Default: "%s"
• Type: String

Commit message which is used bynpm version when creating version commit.

Any "%s" in the message will be replaced with the version number.

node-options

• Default: null
• Type: null or String

Options to pass through to Node.js via theNODE_OPTIONS environment variable. This does not impact how npm itself is executed but it does impact how lifecycle scripts are called.

node-version

• Default: Node.jsprocess.version value
• Type: SemVer string

The node version to use when checking a package'sengines setting.

noproxy

• Default: The value of the NO_PROXY environment variable
• Type: String (can be set multiple times)

Domain extensions that should bypass any proxies.

Also accepts a comma-delimited string.

npm-version

• Default: Output ofnpm --version
• Type: SemVer string

The npm version to use when checking a package'sengines setting.

offline

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Force offline mode: no network requests will be done during install. To allow the CLI to fill in missing cache data, see--prefer-offline.

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.

omit-lockfile-registry-resolved

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

This option causes npm to create lock files without aresolved key for registry dependencies. Subsequent installs will need to resolve tarball endpoints with the configured registry, likely resulting in a longer install time.

otp

• Default: null
• Type: null or String

This is a one-time password from a two-factor authenticator. It's needed when publishing or changing package permissions withnpm access.

If not set, and a registry response fails with a challenge for a one-time password, npm will prompt on the command line for one.

pack-destination

• Default: "."
• Type: String

Directory in whichnpm pack will save tarballs.

package

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

The package or packages to install fornpm exec

package-lock

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

If set to false, then ignorepackage-lock.json files when installing. This will also preventwritingpackage-lock.json ifsave is true.

This configuration does not affectnpm ci.

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.

parseable

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

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

prefer-offline

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, staleness checks for cached data will be bypassed, but missing data will be requested from the server. To force full offline mode, use--offline.

prefer-online

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, staleness checks for cached data will be forced, making the CLI look for updates immediately even for fresh package data.

prefix

• Default: In global mode, the folder where the node executable is installed. In local mode, the nearest parent folder containing either a package.json file or a node_modules folder.
• Type: Path

The location to install global items. If set on the command line, then it forces non-global commands to run in the specified folder.

preid

• Default: ""
• Type: String

The "prerelease identifier" to use as a prefix for the "prerelease" part of a semver. Like therc in1.2.0-rc.8.

progress

• Default:true unless running in a known CI system
• Type: Boolean

When set totrue, npm will display a progress bar during time intensive operations, ifprocess.stderr is a TTY.

Set tofalse to suppress the progress bar.

proxy

• Default: null
• Type: null, false, or URL

A proxy to use for outgoing http requests. If theHTTP_PROXY orhttp_proxy environment variables are set, proxy settings will be honored by the underlyingrequest library.

read-only

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

This is used to mark a token as unable to publish when configuring limited access tokens with thenpm token create command.

rebuild-bundle

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Rebuild bundled dependencies after installation.

registry

• Default: "https://registry.npmjs.org/"
• Type: URL

The base URL of the npm registry.

replace-registry-host

• Default: "npmjs"
• Type: "npmjs", "never", "always", or String

Defines behavior for replacing the registry host in a lockfile with the configured registry.

The default behavior is to replace package dist URLs from the default registry (https://registry.npmjs.org) to the configured registry. If set to "never", then use the registry value. If set to "always", then replace the registry host with the configured host every time.

You may also specify a bare hostname (e.g., "registry.npmjs.org").

save

• Default:true unless when usingnpm update where it defaults tofalse
• Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to apackage.json file as dependencies.

When used with thenpm rm command, removes the dependency frompackage.json.

Will also prevent writing topackage-lock.json if set tofalse.

save-bundle

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If a package would be saved at install time by the use of--save,--save-dev, or--save-optional, then also put it in thebundleDependencies list.

Ignored if--save-peer is set, since peerDependencies cannot be bundled.

save-dev

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to a package.json file asdevDependencies.

save-exact

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Dependencies saved to package.json will be configured with an exact version rather than using npm's default semver range operator.

save-optional

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to a package.json file asoptionalDependencies.

save-peer

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Save installed packages to a package.json file aspeerDependencies

save-prefix

• Default: "^"
• Type: String

Configure how versions of packages installed to a package.json file via--save or--save-dev get prefixed.

For example if a package has version1.2.3, by default its version is set to^1.2.3 which allows minor upgrades for that package, but afternpm config set save-prefix='~' it would be set to~1.2.3 which only allows patch upgrades.

save-prod

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Save installed packages intodependencies specifically. This is useful if a package already exists indevDependencies oroptionalDependencies, but you want to move it to be a non-optional production dependency.

This is the default behavior if--save is true, and neither--save-dev or--save-optional are true.

scope

• Default: the scope of the current project, if any, or ""
• Type: String

Associate an operation with a scope for a scoped registry.

Useful when logging in to or out of a private registry:

# log in, linking the scope to the custom registry
npm login--scope=@mycorp--registry=https://registry.mycorp.com
# log out, removing the link and the auth token
npmlogout--scope=@mycorp

This will cause@mycorp to be mapped to the registry for future installation of packages specified according to the pattern@mycorp/package.

This will also causenpm init to create a scoped package.

# accept all defaults, and create a package named "@foo/whatever",
# instead of just named "whatever"
npm init--scope=@foo--yes

script-shell

• Default: '/bin/sh' on POSIX systems, 'cmd.exe' on Windows
• Type: null or String

The shell to use for scripts run with thenpm exec,npm run andnpm init <package-spec> commands.

searchexclude

• Default: ""
• Type: String

Space-separated options that limit the results from search.

searchlimit

• Default: 20
• Type: Number

Number of items to limit search results to. Will not apply at all to legacy searches.

searchopts

• Default: ""
• Type: String

Space-separated options that are always passed to search.

searchstaleness

• Default: 900
• Type: Number

The age of the cache, in seconds, before another registry request is made if using legacy search endpoint.

shell

• Default: SHELL environment variable, or "bash" on Posix, or "cmd.exe" on Windows
• Type: String

The shell to run for thenpm explore command.

sign-git-commit

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If set to true, then thenpm version command will commit the new package version using-S to add a signature.

Note that git requires you to have set up GPG keys in your git configs for this to work properly.

sign-git-tag

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If set to true, then thenpm version command will tag the version using-s to add a signature.

Note that git requires you to have set up GPG keys in your git configs for this to work properly.

strict-peer-deps

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If set totrue, and--legacy-peer-deps is not set, thenany conflictingpeerDependencies will be treated as an install failure, even if npm could reasonably guess the appropriate resolution based on non-peer dependency relationships.

By default, conflictingpeerDependencies deep in the dependency graph will be resolved using the nearest non-peer dependency specification, even if doing so will result in some packages receiving a peer dependency outside the range set in their package'speerDependencies object.

When such and override is performed, a warning is printed, explaining the conflict and the packages involved. If--strict-peer-deps is set, then this warning is treated as a failure.

strict-ssl

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Whether or not to do SSL key validation when making requests to the registry via https.

See also theca config.

tag

• Default: "latest"
• Type: String

If you ask npm to install a package and don't tell it a specific version, then it will install the specified tag.

Also the tag that is added to the package@version specified by thenpm tag command, if no explicit tag is given.

When used by thenpm diff command, this is the tag used to fetch the tarball that will be compared with the local files by default.

tag-version-prefix

• Default: "v"
• Type: String

If set, alters the prefix used when tagging a new version when performing a version increment usingnpm-version. To remove the prefix altogether, set it to the empty string:"".

Because other tools may rely on the convention that npm version tags look likev1.0.0,only use this property if it is absolutely necessary. In particular, use care when overriding this setting for public packages.

timing

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, writes a debug log tologs-dir and timing information to_timing.json in the cache, even if the command completes successfully._timing.json is a newline delimited list of JSON objects.

You can quickly view it with thisjson command line:npm exec -- json -g < ~/.npm/_timing.json.

umask

• Default: 0
• Type: Octal numeric string in range 0000..0777 (0..511)

The "umask" value to use when setting the file creation mode on files and folders.

Folders and executables are given a mode which is0o777 masked against this value. Other files are given a mode which is0o666 masked against this value.

Note that the underlying system willalso apply its own umask value to files and folders that are created, and npm does not circumvent this, but rather adds the--umask config to it.

Thus, the effective default umask value on most POSIX systems is 0o22, meaning that folders and executables are created with a mode of 0o755 and other files are created with a mode of 0o644.

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.

update-notifier

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

Set to false to suppress the update notification when using an older version of npm than the latest.

usage

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Show short usage output about the command specified.

user-agent

• Default: "npm/{npm-version} node/{node-version} {platform} {arch} workspaces/{workspaces} {ci}"
• Type: String

Sets the User-Agent request header. The following fields are replaced with their actual counterparts:

• {npm-version} - The npm version in use
• {node-version} - The Node.js version in use
• {platform} - The value ofprocess.platform
• {arch} - The value ofprocess.arch
• {workspaces} - Set totrue if theworkspaces orworkspace options are set.
• {ci} - The value of theci-name config, if set, prefixed withci/, or an empty string ifci-name is empty.

userconfig

• Default: "~/.npmrc"
• Type: Path

The location of user-level configuration settings.

This may be overridden by thenpm_config_userconfig environment variable or the--userconfig command line option, but maynot be overridden by settings in theglobalconfig file.

version

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, output the npm version and exit successfully.

Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.

versions

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

If true, output the npm version as well as node'sprocess.versions map and the version in the current working directory'spackage.json file if one exists, and exit successfully.

Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.

viewer

• Default: "man" on Posix, "browser" on Windows
• Type: String

The program to use to view help content.

Set to"browser" to view html help content in the default web browser.

which

• Default: null
• Type: null or Number

If there are multiple funding sources, which 1-indexed source URL to open.

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.

workspaces-update

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

If set to true, the npm cli will run an update after operations that may possibly change the workspaces installed to thenode_modules folder.

yes

• Default: null
• Type: null or Boolean

Automatically answer "yes" to any prompts that npm might print on the command line.

also

• Default: null
• Type: null, "dev", or "development"
• DEPRECATED: Please use --include=dev instead.

When set todev ordevelopment, this is an alias for--include=dev.

cache-max

• Default: Infinity
• Type: Number
• DEPRECATED: This option has been deprecated in favor of--prefer-online

--cache-max=0 is an alias for--prefer-online

cache-min

• Default: 0
• Type: Number
• DEPRECATED: This option has been deprecated in favor of--prefer-offline.

--cache-min=9999 (or bigger) is an alias for--prefer-offline.

dev

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean
• DEPRECATED: Please use --include=dev instead.

Alias for--include=dev.

init.author.email

• Default: ""
• Type: String
• DEPRECATED: Use--init-author-email instead.

Alias for--init-author-email

init.author.name

• Default: ""
• Type: String
• DEPRECATED: Use--init-author-name instead.

Alias for--init-author-name

init.author.url

• Default: ""
• Type: "" or URL
• DEPRECATED: Use--init-author-url instead.

Alias for--init-author-url

init.license

• Default: "ISC"
• Type: String
• DEPRECATED: Use--init-license instead.

Alias for--init-license

init.module

• Default: "~/.npm-init.js"
• Type: Path
• DEPRECATED: Use--init-module instead.

Alias for--init-module

init.version

• Default: "1.0.0"
• Type: SemVer string
• DEPRECATED: Use--init-version instead.

Alias for--init-version

only

• Default: null
• Type: null, "prod", or "production"
• DEPRECATED: Use--omit=dev to omit dev dependencies from the install.

When set toprod orproduction, this is an alias for--omit=dev.

optional

• Default: null
• Type: null or Boolean
• DEPRECATED: Use--omit=optional to exclude optional dependencies, or--include=optional to include them.

Default value does install optional deps unless otherwise omitted.

Alias for --include=optional or --omit=optional

production

• Default: null
• Type: null or Boolean
• DEPRECATED: Use--omit=dev instead.

Alias for--omit=dev

shrinkwrap

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean
• DEPRECATED: Use the --package-lock setting instead.

Alias for --package-lock

sso-poll-frequency

• Default: 500
• Type: Number
• DEPRECATED: The --auth-type method of SSO/SAML/OAuth will be removed in a future version of npm in favor of web-based login.

When used with SSO-enabledauth-types, configures how regularly the registry should be polled while the user is completing authentication.

sso-type

• Default: "oauth"
• Type: null, "oauth", or "saml"
• DEPRECATED: The --auth-type method of SSO/SAML/OAuth will be removed in a future version of npm in favor of web-based login.

If--auth-type=sso, the type of SSO type to use.

tmp

• Default: The value returned by the Node.jsos.tmpdir() methodhttps://nodejs.org/api/os.html#os_os_tmpdir
• Type: Path
• DEPRECATED: This setting is no longer used. npm stores temporary files in a special location in the cache, and they are managed bycacache.

Historically, the location where temporary files were stored. No longer relevant.

See also

• npm config
• npmrc
• npm scripts
• npm folders
• npm

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1 contributorlukekarrys

Last edited bylukekarrys onOctober 26, 2022