npm-version(1) npm-version(1)
NAME
npm-version - Bump a package version
Synopsis
npm version [<newversion> | major | minor | patch | premajor | preminor | prepatch | prerelease | from-git]
alias: verison
Configuration
allow-same-version
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Prevents throwing an error when npm version is used to set the new
version to the same value as the current version.
commit-hooks
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Run git commit hooks when using the npm version command.
git-tag-version
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Tag the commit when using the npm version command. Setting this to
false results in no commit being made at all.
json
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.
o In npm pkg set it enables parsing set values with JSON.parse()
before saving them to your package.json.
Not supported by all npm commands.
preid
o Default: ""
o Type: String
The "prerelease identifier" to use as a prefix for the "prerelease"
part of a semver. Like the rc in 1.2.0-rc.8.
sign-git-tag
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If set to true, then the npm 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.
save
o Default: true unless when using npm update where it defaults to
false
o Type: Boolean
Save installed packages to a package.json file as dependencies.
When used with the npm rm command, removes the dependency from
package.json.
Will also prevent writing to package-lock.json if set to false.
workspace
o Default:
o 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 the workspace config are either:
o Workspace names
o Path to a workspace directory
o Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all
workspaces within that folder)
When set for the npm 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
o Default: null
o Type: null or Boolean
Set to true to run the command in the context of all configured
workspaces.
Explicitly setting this to false will cause commands like install to
ignore workspaces altogether. When not set explicitly:
o Commands that operate on the node_modules tree (install, update,
etc.) will link workspaces into the node_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
the workspace config.
This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
workspaces-update
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
If set to true, the npm cli will run an update after operations that
may possibly change the workspaces installed to the node_modules
folder.
include-workspace-root
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Include the workspace root when workspaces are enabled for a command.
When false, specifying individual workspaces via the workspace config,
or all workspaces via the workspaces 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.
ignore-scripts
o Default: false
o 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
as npm start, npm stop, npm restart, npm test, and npm run will still
run their intended script if ignore-scripts is set, but they will not
run any pre- or post-scripts.
Description
Run this in a package directory to bump the version and write the new
data back to package.json, package-lock.json, and, if present, npm-
shrinkwrap.json.
The newversion argument should be a valid semver string, a valid second
argument to semver.inc <https://github.com/npm/node-semver#functions>
(one of patch, minor, major, prepatch, preminor, premajor, prerelease),
or from-git. In the second case, the existing version will be
incremented by 1 in the specified field. from-git will try to read the
latest git tag, and use that as the new npm version.
Note: If the current version is a prerelease version, patch will simply
remove the prerelease suffix without incrementing the patch version
number. For example, 1.2.0-5 becomes 1.2.0 with npm version patch, not
1.2.1.
If run in a git repo, it will also create a version commit and tag.
This behavior is controlled by git-tag-version (see below), and can be
disabled on the command line by running npm --no-git-tag-version
version. It will fail if the working directory is not clean, unless the
-f or --force flag is set.
Note: Git integration requires a reasonably recent version of git
(2.0.0 or later is recommended). If you encounter issues with git
commands, ensure your git installation is up to date.
If supplied with -m or \fB--message\fR config </using-
npm/config#message> option, npm will use it as a commit message when
creating a version commit. If the message config contains %s then that
will be replaced with the resulting version number. For example:
npm version patch -m "Upgrade to %s for reasons"
If the \fBsign-git-tag\fR config </using-npm/config#sign-git-tag> is
set, then the tag will be signed using the -s flag to git. Note that
you must have a default GPG key set up in your git config for this to
work properly. For example:
$ npm config set sign-git-tag true
$ npm version patch
You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for user: "isaacs (http://blog.izs.me/) <i@izs.me>"
2048-bit RSA key, ID 6C481CF6, created 2010-08-31
Enter passphrase:
If preversion, version, or postversion are in the scripts property of
the package.json, they will be executed as part of running npm version.
The exact order of execution is as follows:
1. Check to make sure the git working directory is clean before we get
started. Your scripts may add files to the commit in future steps.
This step is skipped if the --force flag is set.
2. Run the preversion script. These scripts have access to the old
version in package.json. A typical use would be running your full
test suite before deploying. Any files you want added to the commit
should be explicitly added using git add.
3. Bump version in package.json as requested (patch, minor, major,
etc).
4. Run the version script. These scripts have access to the new
version in package.json (so they can incorporate it into file
headers in generated files for example). Again, scripts should
explicitly add generated files to the commit using git add.
5. Commit and tag.
6. Run the postversion script. Use it to clean up the file system or
automatically push the commit and/or tag.
Take the following example:
{
"scripts": {
"preversion": "npm test",
"version": "npm run build && git add -A dist",
"postversion": "git push && git push --tags && rm -rf build/temp"
}
}
This runs all your tests and proceeds only if they pass. Then runs your
build script, and adds everything in the dist directory to the commit.
After the commit, it pushes the new commit and tag up to the server,
and deletes the build/temp directory.
See Also
o npm help init
o npm help run
o npm help scripts
o package.json </configuring-npm/package-json>
o npm help config
NPM@11.7.0 December 2025 npm-version(1)
npm 11.7.0 - Generated Tue Jan 6 18:30:20 CST 2026