config(7) config(7)
NAME
config - More than you probably want to know about npm configuration
Description
This article details npm configuration in general. To learn about the
config command, see npm help config.
npm gets its configuration values from the following sources, sorted by
priority:
Command Line Flags
Putting --foo bar on the command line sets the foo configuration
parameter to "bar". A -- argument tells the cli parser to stop reading
flags. Using --flag without specifying any value will set the value to
true.
Example: --flag1 --flag2 will set both configuration parameters to
true, while --flag1 --flag2 bar will set flag1 to true, and flag2 to
bar. Finally, --flag1 --flag2 -- bar will set both configuration
parameters to true, and the bar is taken as a command argument.
Environment Variables
Any environment variables that start with npm_config_ will be
interpreted as a configuration parameter. For example, putting
npm_config_foo=bar in your environment will set the foo configuration
parameter to bar. Any environment configurations that are not given a
value will be given the value of true. Config values are case-
insensitive, so NPM_CONFIG_FOO=bar will work the same. However, please
note that inside npm help scripts npm will set its own environment
variables and Node will prefer those lowercase versions over any
uppercase ones that you might set. For details see this issue
<https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/14528>.
Notice that you need to use underscores instead of dashes, so --allow-
same-version would become npm_config_allow_same_version=true.
npmrc Files
The four relevant files are:
o per-project configuration file (/path/to/my/project/.npmrc)
o per-user configuration file (defaults to $HOME/.npmrc; configurable
via CLI option --userconfig or environment variable
$NPM_CONFIG_USERCONFIG)
o global configuration file (defaults to $PREFIX/etc/npmrc;
configurable via CLI option --globalconfig or environment variable
$NPM_CONFIG_GLOBALCONFIG)
o npm's built-in configuration file (/path/to/npm/npmrc)
See npm help npmrc for more details.
Default Configs
Run npm 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:
o -a: --all
o --enjoy-by: --before
o -c: --call
o --desc: --description
o -f: --force
o -g: --global
o --iwr: --include-workspace-root
o -L: --location
o -d: --loglevel info
o -s: --loglevel silent
o --silent: --loglevel silent
o --ddd: --loglevel silly
o --dd: --loglevel verbose
o --verbose: --loglevel verbose
o -q: --loglevel warn
o --quiet: --loglevel warn
o -l: --long
o -m: --message
o --local: --no-global
o -n: --no-yes
o --no: --no-yes
o -p: --parseable
o --porcelain: --parseable
o -C: --prefix
o --readonly: --read-only
o --reg: --registry
o -S: --save
o -B: --save-bundle
o -D: --save-dev
o -E: --save-exact
o -O: --save-optional
o -P: --save-prod
o -?: --usage
o -h: --usage
o -H: --usage
o --help: --usage
o -v: --version
o -w: --workspace
o --ws: --workspaces
o -y: --yes
If the specified configuration param resolves unambiguously to a known
configuration parameter, then it is expanded to that configuration
parameter. For example:
npm ls --par
# same as:
npm ls --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:
npm ls -gpld
# same as:
npm ls --global --parseable --long --loglevel info
Config Settings
_auth
o Default: null
o 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 running npm login.
access
o Default: 'public' for new packages, existing packages it will not
change the current level
o Type: null, "restricted", or "public"
If you do not want your scoped package to be publicly viewable (and
installable) set --access=restricted.
Unscoped packages can not be set to restricted.
Note: This defaults to not changing the current access level for
existing packages. Specifying a value of restricted or public during
publish will change the access for an existing package the same way
that npm access set status would.
all
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
When running npm outdated and npm ls, setting --all will show all
outdated or installed packages, rather than only those directly
depended upon by the current project.
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.
audit
o Default: true
o 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 for npm help audit for details on what is submitted.
audit-level
o Default: null
o Type: null, "info", "low", "moderate", "high", "critical", or
"none"
The minimum level of vulnerability for npm audit to exit with a non-
zero exit code.
auth-type
o Default: "web"
o Type: "legacy" or "web"
What authentication strategy to use with login. Note that if an otp
config is given, this value will always be set to legacy.
before
o Default: null
o Type: null or Date
If passed to npm install, will rebuild the npm tree such that only
versions that were available on 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 a dist-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 install foo@1.2 even
though latest is 2.0.
bin-links
o Default: true
o 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
o Default: OS X: "open", Windows: "start", Others: "xdg-open"
o Type: null, Boolean, or String
The browser that is called by npm commands to open websites.
Set to false to suppress browser behavior and instead print urls to
terminal.
Set to true to use default system URL opener.
ca
o Default: null
o 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 to null 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 the strict-ssl config.
cache
o Default: Windows: %LocalAppData%\npm-cache, Posix: ~/.npm
o Type: Path
The location of npm's cache directory.
cafile
o Default: null
o Type: Path
A path to a file containing one or multiple Certificate Authority
signing certificates. Similar to the ca setting, but allows for
multiple CA's, as well as for the CA information to be stored in a file
on disk.
call
o Default: ""
o Type: String
Optional companion option for npm exec, npx that allows for specifying
a custom command to be run along with the installed packages.
npm exec --package yo --package generator-node --call "yo node"
cidr
o Default: null
o 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 the npm token create command.
color
o Default: true unless the NO_COLOR environ is set to something other
than '0'
o 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
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Run git commit hooks when using the npm version command.
cpu
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
Override CPU architecture of native modules to install. Acceptable
values are same as cpu field of package.json, which comes from
process.arch.
depth
o Default: Infinity if --all is set, otherwise 1
o Type: null or Number
The depth to go when recursing packages for npm 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
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Show the description in npm search
diff
o Default:
o Type: String (can be set multiple times)
Define arguments to compare in npm diff.
diff-dst-prefix
o Default: "b/"
o Type: String
Destination prefix to be used in npm diff output.
diff-ignore-all-space
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Ignore whitespace when comparing lines in npm diff.
diff-name-only
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Prints only filenames when using npm diff.
diff-no-prefix
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Do not show any source or destination prefix in npm diff output.
Note: this causes npm diff to ignore the --diff-src-prefix and --diff-
dst-prefix configs.
diff-src-prefix
o Default: "a/"
o Type: String
Source prefix to be used in npm diff output.
diff-text
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Treat all files as text in npm diff.
diff-unified
o Default: 3
o Type: Number
The number of lines of context to print in npm diff.
dry-run
o Default: false
o 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 as pack and publish.
Note: This is NOT honored by other network related commands, eg dist-
tags, owner, etc.
editor
o Default: The EDITOR or VISUAL environment variables, or
'%SYSTEMROOT%\notepad.exe' on Windows, or 'vi' on Unix systems
o Type: String
The command to run for npm edit and npm config edit.
engine-strict
o Default: false
o 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.
expect-result-count
o Default: null
o Type: null or Number
Tells to expect a specific number of results from the command.
This config can not be used with: expect-results
expect-results
o Default: null
o Type: null or Boolean
Tells npm whether or not to expect results from the command. Can be
either true (expect some results) or false (expect no results).
This config can not be used with: expect-result-count
fetch-retries
o Default: 2
o Type: Number
The "retries" config for the retry 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
o Default: 10
o Type: Number
The "factor" config for the retry module to use when fetching packages.
fetch-retry-maxtimeout
o Default: 60000 (1 minute)
o Type: Number
The "maxTimeout" config for the retry module to use when fetching
packages.
fetch-retry-mintimeout
o Default: 10000 (10 seconds)
o Type: Number
The "minTimeout" config for the retry module to use when fetching
packages.
fetch-timeout
o Default: 300000 (5 minutes)
o Type: Number
The maximum amount of time to wait for HTTP requests to complete.
force
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Removes various protections against unfortunate side effects, common
mistakes, unnecessary performance degradation, and malicious input.
o Allow clobbering non-npm files in global installs.
o Allow the npm version command to work on an unclean git repository.
o Allow deleting the cache folder with npm cache clean.
o Allow installing packages that have an engines declaration
requiring a different version of npm.
o Allow installing packages that have an engines declaration
requiring a different version of node, even if --engine-strict is
enabled.
o Allow npm audit fix to install modules outside your stated
dependency range (including SemVer-major changes).
o Allow unpublishing all versions of a published package.
o Allow conflicting peerDependencies to be installed in the root
project.
o Implicitly set --yes during npm init.
o Allow clobbering existing values in npm pkg
o 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
o Default: false unless when using npm pack or npm publish where it
defaults to true
o Type: Boolean
Run all build scripts (ie, preinstall, install, and postinstall)
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
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Format package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json as a human readable
file.
fund
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
When "true" displays the message at the end of each npm install
acknowledging the number of dependencies looking for funding. See npm
help fund for details.
git
o Default: "git"
o Type: String
The command to use for git commands. If git is installed on the
computer, but is not in the PATH, then set this to the full path to the
git binary.
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.
global
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Operates in "global" mode, so that packages are installed into the
prefix folder instead of the current working directory. See npm help
folders for more on the differences in behavior.
o packages are installed into the {prefix}/lib/node_modules folder,
instead of the current working directory.
o bin files are linked to {prefix}/bin
o man pages are linked to {prefix}/share/man
globalconfig
o Default: The global --prefix setting plus 'etc/npmrc'. For example,
'/usr/local/etc/npmrc'
o Type: Path
The config file to read for global config options.
heading
o Default: "npm"
o Type: String
The string that starts all the debugging log output.
https-proxy
o Default: null
o Type: null or URL
A proxy to use for outgoing https requests. If the HTTPS_PROXY or
https_proxy or HTTP_PROXY or http_proxy environment variables are set,
proxy settings will be honored by the underlying make-fetch-happen
library.
if-present
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If true, npm will not exit with an error code when run-script is
invoked for a script that isn't defined in the scripts section of
package.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
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-script will
still run their intended script if ignore-scripts is set, but they will
not run any pre- or post-scripts.
include
o Default:
o 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
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Allow installing "staged" published packages, as defined by npm RFC PR
#92 <https://github.com/npm/rfcs/pull/92>.
This is experimental, and not implemented by the npm public registry.
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.
init-author-email
o Default: ""
o Type: String
The value npm init should use by default for the package author's
email.
init-author-name
o Default: ""
o Type: String
The value npm init should use by default for the package author's name.
init-author-url
o Default: ""
o Type: "" or URL
The value npm init should use by default for the package author's
homepage.
init-license
o Default: "ISC"
o Type: String
The value npm init should use by default for the package license.
init-module
o Default: "~/.npm-init.js"
o Type: Path
A module that will be loaded by the npm init command. See the
documentation for the init-package-json <https://github.com/npm/init-
package-json> module for more information, or npm help init.
init-version
o Default: "1.0.0"
o Type: SemVer string
The value that npm init should use by default for the package version
number, if not already set in package.json.
install-links
o Default: false
o 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.
install-strategy
o Default: "hoisted"
o Type: "hoisted", "nested", "shallow", or "linked"
Sets the strategy for installing packages in node_modules. hoisted
(default): Install non-duplicated in top-level, and duplicated as
necessary within directory structure. nested: (formerly --legacy-
bundling) install in place, no hoisting. shallow (formerly --global-
style) only install direct deps at top-level. linked: (experimental)
install in node_modules/.store, link in place, unhoisted.
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.
legacy-peer-deps
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Causes npm to completely ignore peerDependencies when building a
package tree, as in npm versions 3 through 6.
If a package cannot be installed because of overly strict
peerDependencies that collide, it provides a way to move forward
resolving the situation.
This differs from --omit=peer, in that --omit=peer will avoid unpacking
peerDependencies on disk, but will still design a tree such that
peerDependencies could be unpacked in a correct place.
Use of legacy-peer-deps is not recommended, as it will not enforce the
peerDependencies contract that meta-dependencies may rely on.
libc
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
Override libc of native modules to install. Acceptable values are same
as libc field of package.json
link
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Used with npm ls, limiting output to only those packages that are
linked.
local-address
o Default: null
o 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
o Default: "user" unless --global is passed, which will also set this
value to "global"
o Type: "global", "user", or "project"
When passed to npm config this refers to which config file to use.
When set to "global" mode, packages are installed into the prefix
folder instead of the current working directory. See npm help folders
for more on the differences in behavior.
o packages are installed into the {prefix}/lib/node_modules folder,
instead of the current working directory.
o bin files are linked to {prefix}/bin
o man pages are linked to {prefix}/share/man
lockfile-version
o Default: Version 3 if no lockfile, auto-converting v1 lockfiles to
v3, otherwise maintain current lockfile version.
o 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 and 8. 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
o Default: "notice"
o Type: "silent", "error", "warn", "notice", "http", "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 the foreground-scripts config.
logs-dir
o Default: A directory named _logs inside the cache
o Type: null or Path
The location of npm's log directory. See npm help logging for more
information.
logs-max
o Default: 10
o 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
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Show extended information in ls, search, and help-search.
maxsockets
o Default: 15
o Type: Number
The maximum number of connections to use per origin (protocol/host/port
combination).
message
o Default: "%s"
o Type: String
Commit message which is used by npm version when creating version
commit.
Any "%s" in the message will be replaced with the version number.
node-options
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
Options to pass through to Node.js via the NODE_OPTIONS environment
variable. This does not impact how npm itself is executed but it does
impact how lifecycle scripts are called.
noproxy
o Default: The value of the NO_PROXY environment variable
o Type: String (can be set multiple times)
Domain extensions that should bypass any proxies.
Also accepts a comma-delimited string.
offline
o Default: false
o 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
o Default: 'dev' if the NODE_ENV environment variable is set to
'production', otherwise empty.
o Type: "dev", "optional", or "peer" (can be set multiple times)
Dependency types to omit from the installation tree on disk.
Note that these dependencies are still resolved and added to the
package-lock.json or npm-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 the NODE_ENV
environment variable will be set to 'production' for all lifecycle
scripts.
omit-lockfile-registry-resolved
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
This option causes npm to create lock files without a resolved key for
registry dependencies. Subsequent installs will need to resolve tarball
endpoints with the configured registry, likely resulting in a longer
install time.
os
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
Override OS of native modules to install. Acceptable values are same as
os field of package.json, which comes from process.platform.
otp
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
This is a one-time password from a two-factor authenticator. It's
needed when publishing or changing package permissions with npm 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
o Default: "."
o Type: String
Directory in which npm pack will save tarballs.
package
o Default:
o Type: String (can be set multiple times)
The package or packages to install for npm help exec
package-lock
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
If set to false, then ignore package-lock.json files when installing.
This will also prevent writing package-lock.json if save is true.
package-lock-only
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If set to true, the current operation will only use the package-
lock.json, ignoring node_modules.
For update this means only the package-lock.json will be updated,
instead of checking node_modules and downloading dependencies.
For list this means the output will be based on the tree described by
the package-lock.json, rather than the contents of node_modules.
parseable
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Output parseable results from commands that write to standard output.
For npm search, this will be tab-separated table format.
prefer-dedupe
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Prefer to deduplicate packages if possible, rather than choosing a
newer version of a dependency.
prefer-offline
o Default: false
o 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
o Default: false
o 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
o Default: In global mode, the folder where the node executable is
installed. Otherwise, the nearest parent folder containing either a
package.json file or a node_modules folder.
o 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
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.
progress
o Default: true unless running in a known CI system
o Type: Boolean
When set to true, npm will display a progress bar during time intensive
operations, if process.stderr and process.stdout are a TTY.
Set to false to suppress the progress bar.
provenance
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
When publishing from a supported cloud CI/CD system, the package will
be publicly linked to where it was built and published from.
This config can not be used with: provenance-file
provenance-file
o Default: null
o Type: Path
When publishing, the provenance bundle at the given path will be used.
This config can not be used with: provenance
proxy
o Default: null
o Type: null, false, or URL
A proxy to use for outgoing http requests. If the HTTP_PROXY or
http_proxy environment variables are set, proxy settings will be
honored by the underlying request library.
read-only
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
This is used to mark a token as unable to publish when configuring
limited access tokens with the npm token create command.
rebuild-bundle
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Rebuild bundled dependencies after installation.
registry
o Default: "https://registry.npmjs.org/"
o Type: URL
The base URL of the npm registry.
replace-registry-host
o Default: "npmjs"
o 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
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.
save-bundle
o Default: false
o 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 the
bundleDependencies list.
Ignored if --save-peer is set, since peerDependencies cannot be
bundled.
save-dev
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Save installed packages to a package.json file as devDependencies.
save-exact
o Default: false
o 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
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Save installed packages to a package.json file as optionalDependencies.
save-peer
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Save installed packages to a package.json file as peerDependencies
save-prefix
o Default: "^"
o 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 version 1.2.3, by default its version is
set to ^1.2.3 which allows minor upgrades for that package, but after
npm config set save-prefix='~' it would be set to ~1.2.3 which only
allows patch upgrades.
save-prod
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Save installed packages into dependencies specifically. This is useful
if a package already exists in devDependencies or optionalDependencies,
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.
sbom-format
o Default: null
o Type: "cyclonedx" or "spdx"
SBOM format to use when generating SBOMs.
sbom-type
o Default: "library"
o Type: "library", "application", or "framework"
The type of package described by the generated SBOM. For SPDX, this is
the value for the primaryPackagePurpose field. For CycloneDX, this is
the value for the type field.
scope
o Default: the scope of the current project, if any, or ""
o 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
npm logout --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 cause npm 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
o Default: '/bin/sh' on POSIX systems, 'cmd.exe' on Windows
o Type: null or String
The shell to use for scripts run with the npm exec, npm run and npm
init <package-spec> commands.
searchexclude
o Default: ""
o Type: String
Space-separated options that limit the results from search.
searchlimit
o Default: 20
o Type: Number
Number of items to limit search results to. Will not apply at all to
legacy searches.
searchopts
o Default: ""
o Type: String
Space-separated options that are always passed to search.
searchstaleness
o Default: 900
o Type: Number
The age of the cache, in seconds, before another registry request is
made if using legacy search endpoint.
shell
o Default: SHELL environment variable, or "bash" on Posix, or
"cmd.exe" on Windows
o Type: String
The shell to run for the npm explore command.
sign-git-commit
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If set to true, then the npm 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
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.
strict-peer-deps
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If set to true, and --legacy-peer-deps is not set, then any conflicting
peerDependencies will be treated as an install failure, even if npm
could reasonably guess the appropriate resolution based on non-peer
dependency relationships.
By default, conflicting peerDependencies 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's peerDependencies
object.
When such an 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
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Whether or not to do SSL key validation when making requests to the
registry via https.
See also the ca config.
tag
o Default: "latest"
o 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.
It is the tag added to the package@version specified in the npm dist-
tag add command, if no explicit tag is given.
When used by the npm diff command, this is the tag used to fetch the
tarball that will be compared with the local files by default.
If used in the npm publish command, this is the tag that will be added
to the package submitted to the registry.
tag-version-prefix
o Default: "v"
o Type: String
If set, alters the prefix used when tagging a new version when
performing a version increment using npm 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 like v1.0.0, only use this property if it is absolutely necessary.
In particular, use care when overriding this setting for public
packages.
timing
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If true, writes timing information to a process specific json file in
the cache or logs-dir. The file name ends with -timing.json.
You can quickly view it with this json <https://npm.im/json> command
line: cat ~/.npm/_logs/*-timing.json | npm exec -- json -g.
Timing information will also be reported in the terminal. To suppress
this while still writing the timing file, use --silent.
umask
o Default: 0
o 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 is 0o777 masked against
this value. Other files are given a mode which is 0o666 masked against
this value.
Note that the underlying system will also 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
o Default: false on windows, true on mac/unix systems with a unicode
locale, as defined by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, or LANG environment
variables.
o 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
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
Set to false to suppress the update notification when using an older
version of npm than the latest.
usage
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
Show short usage output about the command specified.
user-agent
o Default: "npm/{npm-version} node/{node-version} {platform} {arch}
workspaces/{workspaces} {ci}"
o Type: String
Sets the User-Agent request header. The following fields are replaced
with their actual counterparts:
o {npm-version} - The npm version in use
o {node-version} - The Node.js version in use
o {platform} - The value of process.platform
o {arch} - The value of process.arch
o {workspaces} - Set to true if the workspaces or workspace options
are set.
o {ci} - The value of the ci-name config, if set, prefixed with ci/,
or an empty string if ci-name is empty.
userconfig
o Default: "~/.npmrc"
o Type: Path
The location of user-level configuration settings.
This may be overridden by the npm_config_userconfig environment
variable or the --userconfig command line option, but may not be
overridden by settings in the globalconfig file.
version
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If true, output the npm version and exit successfully.
Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.
versions
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
If true, output the npm version as well as node's process.versions map
and the version in the current working directory's package.json file if
one exists, and exit successfully.
Only relevant when specified explicitly on the command line.
viewer
o Default: "man" on Posix, "browser" on Windows
o Type: String
The program to use to view help content.
Set to "browser" to view html help content in the default web browser.
which
o Default: null
o Type: null or Number
If there are multiple funding sources, which 1-indexed source URL to
open.
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.
yes
o Default: null
o Type: null or Boolean
Automatically answer "yes" to any prompts that npm might print on the
command line.
also
o Default: null
o Type: null, "dev", or "development"
o DEPRECATED: Please use --include=dev instead.
When set to dev or development, this is an alias for --include=dev.
cache-max
o Default: Infinity
o Type: Number
o DEPRECATED: This option has been deprecated in favor of --prefer-
online
--cache-max=0 is an alias for --prefer-online
cache-min
o Default: 0
o Type: Number
o DEPRECATED: This option has been deprecated in favor of --prefer-
offline.
--cache-min=9999 (or bigger) is an alias for --prefer-offline.
cert
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
o DEPRECATED: key and cert are no longer used for most registry
operations. Use registry scoped keyfile and certfile instead.
Example: //other-registry.tld/:keyfile=/path/to/key.pem //other-
registry.tld/:certfile=/path/to/cert.crt
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 is not the path to a certificate file, though you can set a
registry-scoped "certfile" path like "//other-
registry.tld/:certfile=/path/to/cert.pem".
dev
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
o DEPRECATED: Please use --include=dev instead.
Alias for --include=dev.
global-style
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
o DEPRECATED: This option has been deprecated in favor of --install-
strategy=shallow
Only install direct dependencies in the top level node_modules, but
hoist on deeper dependencies. Sets --install-strategy=shallow.
init.author.email
o Default: ""
o Type: String
o DEPRECATED: Use --init-author-email instead.
Alias for --init-author-email
init.author.name
o Default: ""
o Type: String
o DEPRECATED: Use --init-author-name instead.
Alias for --init-author-name
init.author.url
o Default: ""
o Type: "" or URL
o DEPRECATED: Use --init-author-url instead.
Alias for --init-author-url
init.license
o Default: "ISC"
o Type: String
o DEPRECATED: Use --init-license instead.
Alias for --init-license
init.module
o Default: "~/.npm-init.js"
o Type: Path
o DEPRECATED: Use --init-module instead.
Alias for --init-module
init.version
o Default: "1.0.0"
o Type: SemVer string
o DEPRECATED: Use --init-version instead.
Alias for --init-version
key
o Default: null
o Type: null or String
o DEPRECATED: key and cert are no longer used for most registry
operations. Use registry scoped keyfile and certfile instead.
Example: //other-registry.tld/:keyfile=/path/to/key.pem //other-
registry.tld/:certfile=/path/to/cert.crt
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 is not 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
o Default: false
o Type: Boolean
o DEPRECATED: This option has been deprecated in favor of --install-
strategy=nested
Instead of hoisting package installs in node_modules, install packages
in the same manner that they are depended on. This may cause very deep
directory structures and duplicate package installs as there is no de-
duplicating. Sets --install-strategy=nested.
only
o Default: null
o Type: null, "prod", or "production"
o DEPRECATED: Use --omit=dev to omit dev dependencies from the
install.
When set to prod or production, this is an alias for --omit=dev.
optional
o Default: null
o Type: null or Boolean
o 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
o Default: null
o Type: null or Boolean
o DEPRECATED: Use --omit=dev instead.
Alias for --omit=dev
shrinkwrap
o Default: true
o Type: Boolean
o DEPRECATED: Use the --package-lock setting instead.
Alias for --package-lock
See also
o npm help config
o npm help npmrc
o npm help scripts
o npm help folders
o npm help npm
NPM@10.8.1 May 2024 config(7)
npm 10.8.1 - Generated Sat Jun 1 13:10:21 CDT 2024