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1 ---
2 title: developers
3 section: 7
4 description: Developer Guide
5 github_repo: npm/cli
6 github_branch: release/v6
7 github_path: docs/content/using-npm/developers.md
8 redirect_from:
9 - /cli-documentation/v6/misc/developers
10 - /cli-documentation/v6/using-npm/developers
11 - /cli/v6/misc/developers
12 ---
13
14 ### Description
15
16 So, you've decided to use npm to develop (and maybe publish/deploy) your project.
17
18 Fantastic!
19
20 There are a few things that you need to do above the simple steps that your users will do to install your program.
21
22 ### About These Documents
23
24 These are man pages. If you install npm, you should be able to then do `man npm-thing` to get the documentation on a particular topic, or `npm help thing` to see the same information.
25
26 ### What is a package
27
28 A package is:
29
30 - a) a folder containing a program described by a package.json file
31 - b) a gzipped tarball containing (a)
32 - c) a url that resolves to (b)
33 - d) a `<name>@<version>` that is published on the registry with (c)
34 - e) a `<name>@<tag>` that points to (d)
35 - f) a `<name>` that has a "latest" tag satisfying (e)
36 - g) a `git` url that, when cloned, results in (a).
37
38 Even if you never publish your package, you can still get a lot of benefits of using npm if you just want to write a node program (a), and perhaps if you also want to be able to easily install it elsewhere after packing it up into a tarball (b).
39
40 Git urls can be of the form:
41
42 ```bash
43 git://github.com/user/project.git#commit-ish
44 git+ssh://user@hostname:project.git#commit-ish
45 git+http://user@hostname/project/blah.git#commit-ish
46 git+https://user@hostname/project/blah.git#commit-ish
47 ```
48
49 The `commit-ish` can be any tag, sha, or branch which can be supplied as an argument to `git checkout`. The default is `master`.
50
51 ### The package.json File
52
53 You need to have a `package.json` file in the root of your project to do much of anything with npm. That is basically the whole interface.
54
55 See [`package.json`](/cli/v6/configuring-npm/package-json) for details about what goes in that file. At the very least, you need:
56
57 - name: This should be a string that identifies your project. Please do not use the name to specify that it runs on node, or is in JavaScript. You can use the "engines" field to explicitly state the versions of node (or whatever else) that your program requires, and it's pretty well assumed that it's JavaScript.
58
59 It does not necessarily need to match your github repository name.
60
61 So, `node-foo` and `bar-js` are bad names. `foo` or `bar` are better.
62
63 - version: A semver-compatible version.
64
65 - engines: Specify the versions of node (or whatever else) that your program runs on. The node API changes a lot, and there may be bugs or new functionality that you depend on. Be explicit.
66
67 - author: Take some credit.
68
69 - scripts: If you have a special compilation or installation script, then you should put it in the `scripts` object. You should definitely have at least a basic smoke-test command as the "scripts.test" field. See [scripts](/cli/v6/using-npm/scripts).
70
71 - main: If you have a single module that serves as the entry point to your program (like what the "foo" package gives you at require("foo")), then you need to specify that in the "main" field.
72
73 - directories: This is an object mapping names to folders. The best ones to include are "lib" and "doc", but if you use "man" to specify a folder full of man pages, they'll get installed just like these ones.
74
75 You can use `npm init` in the root of your package in order to get you started with a pretty basic package.json file. See [`npm init`](/cli/v6/commands/npm-init) for more info.
76
77 ### Keeping files _out_ of your package
78
79 Use a `.npmignore` file to keep stuff out of your package. If there's no `.npmignore` file, but there _is_ a `.gitignore` file, then npm will ignore the stuff matched by the `.gitignore` file. If you _want_ to include something that is excluded by your `.gitignore` file, you can create an empty `.npmignore` file to override it. Like `git`, `npm` looks for `.npmignore` and `.gitignore` files in all subdirectories of your package, not only the root directory.
80
81 `.npmignore` files follow the [same pattern rules](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Recording-Changes-to-the-Repository#Ignoring-Files) as `.gitignore` files:
82
83 - Blank lines or lines starting with `#` are ignored.
84 - Standard glob patterns work.
85 - You can end patterns with a forward slash `/` to specify a directory.
86 - You can negate a pattern by starting it with an exclamation point `!`.
87
88 By default, the following paths and files are ignored, so there's no need to add them to `.npmignore` explicitly:
89
90 - `.*.swp`
91 - `._*`
92 - `.DS_Store`
93 - `.git`
94 - `.hg`
95 - `.npmrc`
96 - `.lock-wscript`
97 - `.svn`
98 - `.wafpickle-*`
99 - `config.gypi`
100 - `CVS`
101 - `npm-debug.log`
102
103 Additionally, everything in `node_modules` is ignored, except for bundled dependencies. npm automatically handles this for you, so don't bother adding `node_modules` to `.npmignore`.
104
105 The following paths and files are never ignored, so adding them to `.npmignore` is pointless:
106
107 - `package.json`
108 - `README` (and its variants)
109 - `CHANGELOG` (and its variants)
110 - `LICENSE` / `LICENCE`
111
112 If, given the structure of your project, you find `.npmignore` to be a maintenance headache, you might instead try populating the `files` property of `package.json`, which is an array of file or directory names that should be included in your package. Sometimes a whitelist is easier to manage than a blacklist.
113
114 #### Testing whether your `.npmignore` or `files` config works
115
116 If you want to double check that your package will include only the files you intend it to when published, you can run the `npm pack` command locally which will generate a tarball in the working directory, the same way it does for publishing.
117
118 ### Link Packages
119
120 `npm link` is designed to install a development package and see the changes in real time without having to keep re-installing it. (You do need to either re-link or `npm rebuild -g` to update compiled packages, of course.)
121
122 More info at [`npm link`](/cli/v6/commands/npm-link).
123
124 ### Before Publishing: Make Sure Your Package Installs and Works
125
126 **This is important.**
127
128 If you can not install it locally, you'll have problems trying to publish it. Or, worse yet, you'll be able to publish it, but you'll be publishing a broken or pointless package. So don't do that.
129
130 In the root of your package, do this:
131
132 ```bash
133 npm install . -g
134 ```
135
136 That'll show you that it's working. If you'd rather just create a symlink package that points to your working directory, then do this:
137
138 ```bash
139 npm link
140 ```
141
142 Use `npm ls -g` to see if it's there.
143
144 To test a local install, go into some other folder, and then do:
145
146 ```bash
147 cd ../some-other-folder
148 npm install ../my-package
149 ```
150
151 to install it locally into the node_modules folder in that other place.
152
153 Then go into the node-repl, and try using require("my-thing") to bring in your module's main module.
154
155 ### Create a User Account
156
157 Create a user with the adduser command. It works like this:
158
159 ```bash
160 npm adduser
161 ```
162
163 and then follow the prompts.
164
165 This is documented better in [npm adduser](/cli/v6/commands/npm-adduser).
166
167 ### Publish your package
168
169 This part's easy. In the root of your folder, do this:
170
171 ```bash
172 npm publish
173 ```
174
175 You can give publish a url to a tarball, or a filename of a tarball, or a path to a folder.
176
177 Note that pretty much **everything in that folder will be exposed** by default. So, if you have secret stuff in there, use a `.npmignore` file to list out the globs to ignore, or publish from a fresh checkout.
178
179 ### Brag about it
180
181 Send emails, write blogs, blab in IRC.
182
183 Tell the world how easy it is to install your program!
184
185 ### See also
186
187 - [npm](/cli/v6/commands/npm)
188 - [npm init](/cli/v6/commands/npm-init)
189 - [package.json](/cli/v6/configuring-npm/package-json)
190 - [npm scripts](/cli/v6/using-npm/scripts)
191 - [npm publish](/cli/v6/commands/npm-publish)
192 - [npm adduser](/cli/v6/commands/npm-adduser)
193 - [npm registry](/cli/v6/using-npm/registry)