npm-ci

Install a project with a clean slate

Select CLI Version:

Table of contents

Synopsis

npm ci

This command is similar to npm install, except it's meant to be used in automated environments such as test platforms, continuous integration, and deployment -- or any situation where you want to make sure you're doing a clean install of your dependencies.

npm ci will be significantly faster when:

There is a package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json file.
The node_modules folder is missing or empty.

In short, the main differences between using npm install and npm ci are:

The project must have an existing package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json.
If dependencies in the package lock do not match those in package.json, npm ci will exit with an error, instead of updating the package lock.
npm ci can only install entire projects at a time: individual dependencies cannot be added with this command.
If a node_modules is already present, it will be automatically removed before npm ci begins its install.
It will never write to package.json or any of the package-locks: installs are essentially frozen.

Example

Make sure you have a package-lock and an up-to-date install:

$ cd ./my/npm/project
$ npm install
added 154 packages in 10s
$ ls | grep package-lock

Run npm ci in that project

$ npm ci
added 154 packages in 5s

Configure Travis to build using npm ci instead of npm install:

# .travis.yml
install:
- npm ci
# keep the npm cache around to speed up installs
cache:
  directories:
  - "$HOME/.npm"

Configuration

`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 for npm audit for details on what is submitted.

`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 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.

`script-shell`

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

The shell to use for scripts run with the npm exec, npm run and npm init <pkg> commands.