DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / npm / npm-ci.1.en
NPM-CI(1) General Commands Manual NPM-CI(1)

npm-ci

<!-- AUTOGENERATED USAGE DESCRIPTIONS -->

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.

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.

NOTE: If you create your package-lock.json file by running npm install
with flags that can affect the shape of your dependency tree, such as
--legacy-peer-deps or --install-links, you must provide the same
flags to npm ci or you are likely to encounter errors. An easy way to do
this is to run, for example,
npm config set legacy-peer-deps=true --location=project and commit the
.npmrc file to your repo.

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 CI 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"

<!-- AUTOGENERATED CONFIG DESCRIPTIONS -->

  • npm install
  • package-lock.json

December 2022 9.2.0