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---
section: configuring-npm
title: package.json
description: Specifics of npm's package.json handling
---
# package.json(5)
## Specifics of npm's package.json handling
### Description
This document is all you need to know about what's required in your package.json
file. It must be actual JSON, not just a JavaScript object literal.
A lot of the behavior described in this document is affected by the config
settings described in [`config`](/using-npm/config).
### name
If you plan to publish your package, the *most* important things in your
package.json are the name and version fields as they will be required. The name
and version together form an identifier that is assumed to be completely unique.
Changes to the package should come along with changes to the version. If you don't
plan to publish your package, the name and version fields are optional.
The name is what your thing is called.
Some rules:
* The name must be less than or equal to 214 characters. This includes the scope for
scoped packages.
* The names of scoped packages can begin with a dot or an underscore. This is not permitted without a scope.
* New packages must not have uppercase letters in the name.
* The name ends up being part of a URL, an argument on the command line, and a
folder name. Therefore, the name can't contain any non-URL-safe characters.
Some tips:
* Don't use the same name as a core Node module.
* Don't put "js" or "node" in the name. It's assumed that it's js, since you're
writing a package.json file, and you can specify the engine using the "engines"
field. (See below.)
* The name will probably be passed as an argument to require(), so it should
be something short, but also reasonably descriptive.
* You may want to check the npm registry to see if there's something by that name
already, before you get too attached to it. <https://www.npmjs.com/>
A name can be optionally prefixed by a scope, e.g. `@myorg/mypackage`. See
[`scope`](/using-npm/scope) for more detail.
### version
If you plan to publish your package, the *most* important things in your
package.json are the name and version fields as they will be required. The name
and version together form an identifier that is assumed to be completely unique.
Changes to the package should come along with changes to the version. If you don't
plan to publish your package, the name and version fields are optional.
Version must be parseable by
[node-semver](https://github.com/isaacs/node-semver), which is bundled
with npm as a dependency. (`npm install semver` to use it yourself.)
More on version numbers and ranges at [semver](/using-npm/semver).
### description
Put a description in it. It's a string. This helps people discover your
package, as it's listed in `npm search`.
### keywords
Put keywords in it. It's an array of strings. This helps people
discover your package as it's listed in `npm search`.
### homepage
The url to the project homepage.
Example:
```json
"homepage": "https://github.com/owner/project#readme"
```
### bugs
The url to your project's issue tracker and / or the email address to which
issues should be reported. These are helpful for people who encounter issues
with your package.
It should look like this:
```json
{ "url" : "https://github.com/owner/project/issues"
, "email" : "project@hostname.com"
}
```
You can specify either one or both values. If you want to provide only a url,
you can specify the value for "bugs" as a simple string instead of an object.
If a url is provided, it will be used by the `npm bugs` command.
### license
You should specify a license for your package so that people know how they are
permitted to use it, and any restrictions you're placing on it.
If you're using a common license such as BSD-2-Clause or MIT, add a
current SPDX license identifier for the license you're using, like this:
```json
{ "license" : "BSD-3-Clause" }
```
You can check [the full list of SPDX license IDs](https://spdx.org/licenses/).
Ideally you should pick one that is
[OSI](https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical) approved.
If your package is licensed under multiple common licenses, use an [SPDX license
expression syntax version 2.0 string](https://www.npmjs.com/package/spdx), like this:
```json
{ "license" : "(ISC OR GPL-3.0)" }
```
If you are using a license that hasn't been assigned an SPDX identifier, or if
you are using a custom license, use a string value like this one:
```json
{ "license" : "SEE LICENSE IN <filename>" }
```
Then include a file named `<filename>` at the top level of the package.
Some old packages used license objects or a "licenses" property containing an
array of license objects:
```json
// Not valid metadata
{ "license" :
{ "type" : "ISC"
, "url" : "https://opensource.org/licenses/ISC"
}
}
// Not valid metadata
{ "licenses" :
[
{ "type": "MIT"
, "url": "https://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php"
}
, { "type": "Apache-2.0"
, "url": "https://opensource.org/licenses/apache2.0.php"
}
]
}
```
Those styles are now deprecated. Instead, use SPDX expressions, like this:
```json
{ "license": "ISC" }
{ "license": "(MIT OR Apache-2.0)" }
```
Finally, if you do not wish to grant others the right to use a private or
unpublished package under any terms:
```json
{ "license": "UNLICENSED" }
```
Consider also setting `"private": true` to prevent accidental publication.
### people fields: author, contributors
The "author" is one person. "contributors" is an array of people. A "person"
is an object with a "name" field and optionally "url" and "email", like this:
```json
{ "name" : "Barney Rubble"
, "email" : "b@rubble.com"
, "url" : "http://barnyrubble.tumblr.com/"
}
```
Or you can shorten that all into a single string, and npm will parse it for you:
```json
"Barney Rubble <b@rubble.com> (http://barnyrubble.tumblr.com/)"
```
Both email and url are optional either way.
npm also sets a top-level "maintainers" field with your npm user info.
### funding
You can specify an object containing an URL that provides up-to-date
information about ways to help fund development of your package, or
a string URL, or an array of these:
"funding": {
"type" : "individual",
"url" : "http://example.com/donate"
}
"funding": {
"type" : "patreon",
"url" : "https://www.patreon.com/my-account"
}
"funding": "http://example.com/donate"
"funding": [
{
"type" : "individual",
"url" : "http://example.com/donate"
},
"http://example.com/donateAlso",
{
"type" : "patreon",
"url" : "https://www.patreon.com/my-account"
}
]
Users can use the `npm fund` subcommand to list the `funding` URLs of all
dependencies of their project, direct and indirect. A shortcut to visit each
funding url is also available when providing the project name such as:
`npm fund <projectname>` (when there are multiple URLs, the first one will be
visited)
### files
The optional `files` field is an array of file patterns that describes
the entries to be included when your package is installed as a
dependency. File patterns follow a similar syntax to `.gitignore`, but
reversed: including a file, directory, or glob pattern (`*`, `**/*`, and such)
will make it so that file is included in the tarball when it's packed. Omitting
the field will make it default to `["*"]`, which means it will include all files.
Some special files and directories are also included or excluded regardless of
whether they exist in the `files` array (see below).
You can also provide a `.npmignore` file in the root of your package or
in subdirectories, which will keep files from being included. At the
root of your package it will not override the "files" field, but in
subdirectories it will. The `.npmignore` file works just like a
`.gitignore`. If there is a `.gitignore` file, and `.npmignore` is
missing, `.gitignore`'s contents will be used instead.
Files included with the "package.json#files" field _cannot_ be excluded
through `.npmignore` or `.gitignore`.
Certain files are always included, regardless of settings:
* `package.json`
* `README`
* `CHANGES` / `CHANGELOG` / `HISTORY`
* `LICENSE` / `LICENCE`
* `NOTICE`
* The file in the "main" field
`README`, `CHANGES`, `LICENSE` & `NOTICE` can have any case and extension.
Conversely, some files are always ignored:
* `.git`
* `CVS`
* `.svn`
* `.hg`
* `.lock-wscript`
* `.wafpickle-N`
* `.DS_Store`
* `npm-debug.log`
* `.npmrc`
* `node_modules`
* `config.gypi`
* `package-lock.json` (use shrinkwrap instead)
* All files containing a `*` character (incompatible with Windows)
### main
The main field is a module ID that is the primary entry point to your program.
That is, if your package is named `foo`, and a user installs it, and then does
`require("foo")`, then your main module's exports object will be returned.
This should be a module ID relative to the root of your package folder.
For most modules, it makes the most sense to have a main script and often not
much else.
### browser
If your module is meant to be used client-side the browser field should be
used instead of the main field. This is helpful to hint users that it might
rely on primitives that aren't available in Node.js modules. (e.g. `window`)
### bin
A lot of packages have one or more executable files that they'd like to
install into the PATH. npm makes this pretty easy (in fact, it uses this
feature to install the "npm" executable.)
To use this, supply a `bin` field in your package.json which is a map of
command name to local file name. On install, npm will symlink that file into
`prefix/bin` for global installs, or `./node_modules/.bin/` for local
installs.
For example, myapp could have this:
```json
{ "bin" : { "myapp" : "./cli.js" } }
```
So, when you install myapp, it'll create a symlink from the `cli.js` script to
`/usr/local/bin/myapp`.
If you have a single executable, and its name should be the name
of the package, then you can just supply it as a string. For example:
```json
{ "name": "my-program"
, "version": "1.2.5"
, "bin": "./path/to/program" }
```
would be the same as this:
```json
{ "name": "my-program"
, "version": "1.2.5"
, "bin" : { "my-program" : "./path/to/program" } }
```
Please make sure that your file(s) referenced in `bin` starts with
`#!/opt/alt/alt-nodejs12/root/usr/bin/node`, otherwise the scripts are started without the node
executable!
### man
Specify either a single file or an array of filenames to put in place for the
`man` program to find.
If only a single file is provided, then it's installed such that it is the
result from `man <pkgname>`, regardless of its actual filename. For example:
```json
{ "name" : "foo"
, "version" : "1.2.3"
, "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos"
, "main" : "foo.js"
, "man" : "./man/doc.1"
}
```
would link the `./man/doc.1` file in such that it is the target for `man foo`
If the filename doesn't start with the package name, then it's prefixed.
So, this:
```json
{ "name" : "foo"
, "version" : "1.2.3"
, "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos"
, "main" : "foo.js"
, "man" : [ "./man/foo.1", "./man/bar.1" ]
}
```
will create files to do `man foo` and `man foo-bar`.
Man files must end with a number, and optionally a `.gz` suffix if they are
compressed. The number dictates which man section the file is installed into.
```json
{ "name" : "foo"
, "version" : "1.2.3"
, "description" : "A packaged foo fooer for fooing foos"
, "main" : "foo.js"
, "man" : [ "./man/foo.1", "./man/foo.2" ]
}
```
will create entries for `man foo` and `man 2 foo`
### directories
The CommonJS [Packages](http://wiki.commonjs.org/wiki/Packages/1.0) spec details a
few ways that you can indicate the structure of your package using a `directories`
object. If you look at [npm's package.json](https://registry.npmjs.org/npm/latest),
you'll see that it has directories for doc, lib, and man.
In the future, this information may be used in other creative ways.
#### directories.lib
Tell people where the bulk of your library is. Nothing special is done
with the lib folder in any way, but it's useful meta info.
#### directories.bin
If you specify a `bin` directory in `directories.bin`, all the files in
that folder will be added.
Because of the way the `bin` directive works, specifying both a
`bin` path and setting `directories.bin` is an error. If you want to
specify individual files, use `bin`, and for all the files in an
existing `bin` directory, use `directories.bin`.
#### directories.man
A folder that is full of man pages. Sugar to generate a "man" array by
walking the folder.
#### directories.doc
Put markdown files in here. Eventually, these will be displayed nicely,
maybe, someday.
#### directories.example
Put example scripts in here. Someday, it might be exposed in some clever way.
#### directories.test
Put your tests in here. It is currently not exposed, but it might be in the
future.
### repository
Specify the place where your code lives. This is helpful for people who
want to contribute. If the git repo is on GitHub, then the `npm docs`
command will be able to find you.
Do it like this:
```json
"repository": {
"type" : "git",
"url" : "https://github.com/npm/cli.git"
}
"repository": {
"type" : "svn",
"url" : "https://v8.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/"
}
```
The URL should be a publicly available (perhaps read-only) url that can be handed
directly to a VCS program without any modification. It should not be a url to an
html project page that you put in your browser. It's for computers.
For GitHub, GitHub gist, Bitbucket, or GitLab repositories you can use the same
shortcut syntax you use for `npm install`:
```json
"repository": "npm/npm"
"repository": "github:user/repo"
"repository": "gist:11081aaa281"
"repository": "bitbucket:user/repo"
"repository": "gitlab:user/repo"
```
If the `package.json` for your package is not in the root directory (for example
if it is part of a monorepo), you can specify the directory in which it lives:
```json
"repository": {
"type" : "git",
"url" : "https://github.com/facebook/react.git",
"directory": "packages/react-dom"
}
```
### scripts
The "scripts" property is a dictionary containing script commands that are run
at various times in the lifecycle of your package. The key is the lifecycle
event, and the value is the command to run at that point.
See [`scripts`](/using-npm/scripts) to find out more about writing package scripts.
### config
A "config" object can be used to set configuration parameters used in package
scripts that persist across upgrades. For instance, if a package had the
following:
```json
{ "name" : "foo"
, "config" : { "port" : "8080" } }
```
and then had a "start" command that then referenced the
`npm_package_config_port` environment variable, then the user could
override that by doing `npm config set foo:port 8001`.
See [`config`](/using-npm/config) and [`scripts`](/using-npm/scripts) for more on package
configs.
### dependencies
Dependencies are specified in a simple object that maps a package name to a
version range. The version range is a string which has one or more
space-separated descriptors. Dependencies can also be identified with a
tarball or git URL.
**Please do not put test harnesses or transpilers in your
`dependencies` object.** See `devDependencies`, below.
See [semver](/using-npm/semver) for more details about specifying version ranges.
* `version` Must match `version` exactly
* `>version` Must be greater than `version`
* `>=version` etc
* `<version`
* `<=version`
* `~version` "Approximately equivalent to version" See [semver](/using-npm/semver)
* `^version` "Compatible with version" See [semver](/using-npm/semver)
* `1.2.x` 1.2.0, 1.2.1, etc., but not 1.3.0
* `http://...` See 'URLs as Dependencies' below
* `*` Matches any version
* `""` (just an empty string) Same as `*`
* `version1 - version2` Same as `>=version1 <=version2`.
* `range1 || range2` Passes if either range1 or range2 are satisfied.
* `git...` See 'Git URLs as Dependencies' below
* `user/repo` See 'GitHub URLs' below
* `tag` A specific version tagged and published as `tag` See [`npm dist-tag`](/cli-commands/npm-dist-tag)
* `path/path/path` See [Local Paths](#local-paths) below
For example, these are all valid:
```json
{ "dependencies" :
{ "foo" : "1.0.0 - 2.9999.9999"
, "bar" : ">=1.0.2 <2.1.2"
, "baz" : ">1.0.2 <=2.3.4"
, "boo" : "2.0.1"
, "qux" : "<1.0.0 || >=2.3.1 <2.4.5 || >=2.5.2 <3.0.0"
, "asd" : "http://asdf.com/asdf.tar.gz"
, "til" : "~1.2"
, "elf" : "~1.2.3"
, "two" : "2.x"
, "thr" : "3.3.x"
, "lat" : "latest"
, "dyl" : "file:../dyl"
}
}
```
#### URLs as Dependencies
You may specify a tarball URL in place of a version range.
This tarball will be downloaded and installed locally to your package at
install time.
#### Git URLs as Dependencies
Git urls are of the form:
```bash
<protocol>://[<user>[:<password>]@]<hostname>[:<port>][:][/]<path>[#<commit-ish> | #semver:<semver>]
```
`<protocol>` is one of `git`, `git+ssh`, `git+http`, `git+https`, or
`git+file`.
If `#<commit-ish>` is provided, it will be used to clone exactly that
commit. If the commit-ish has the format `#semver:<semver>`, `<semver>` can
be any valid semver range or exact version, and npm will look for any tags
or refs matching that range in the remote repository, much as it would for a
registry dependency. If neither `#<commit-ish>` or `#semver:<semver>` is
specified, then `master` is used.
Examples:
```bash
git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/cli.git#v1.0.27
git+ssh://git@github.com:npm/cli#semver:^5.0
git+https://isaacs@github.com/npm/cli.git
git://github.com/npm/cli.git#v1.0.27
```
#### GitHub URLs
As of version 1.1.65, you can refer to GitHub urls as just "foo":
"user/foo-project". Just as with git URLs, a `commit-ish` suffix can be
included. For example:
```json
{
"name": "foo",
"version": "0.0.0",
"dependencies": {
"express": "expressjs/express",
"mocha": "mochajs/mocha#4727d357ea",
"module": "user/repo#feature\/branch"
}
}
```
#### Local Paths
As of version 2.0.0 you can provide a path to a local directory that contains a
package. Local paths can be saved using `npm install -S` or
`npm install --save`, using any of these forms:
```bash
../foo/bar
~/foo/bar
./foo/bar
/foo/bar
```
in which case they will be normalized to a relative path and added to your
`package.json`. For example:
```json
{
"name": "baz",
"dependencies": {
"bar": "file:../foo/bar"
}
}
```
This feature is helpful for local offline development and creating
tests that require npm installing where you don't want to hit an
external server, but should not be used when publishing packages
to the public registry.
### devDependencies
If someone is planning on downloading and using your module in their
program, then they probably don't want or need to download and build
the external test or documentation framework that you use.
In this case, it's best to map these additional items in a `devDependencies`
object.
These things will be installed when doing `npm link` or `npm install`
from the root of a package, and can be managed like any other npm
configuration param. See [`config`](/using-npm/config) for more on the topic.
For build steps that are not platform-specific, such as compiling
CoffeeScript or other languages to JavaScript, use the `prepare`
script to do this, and make the required package a devDependency.
For example:
```json
{ "name": "ethopia-waza",
"description": "a delightfully fruity coffee varietal",
"version": "1.2.3",
"devDependencies": {
"coffee-script": "~1.6.3"
},
"scripts": {
"prepare": "coffee -o lib/ -c src/waza.coffee"
},
"main": "lib/waza.js"
}
```
The `prepare` script will be run before publishing, so that users
can consume the functionality without requiring them to compile it
themselves. In dev mode (ie, locally running `npm install`), it'll
run this script as well, so that you can test it easily.
### peerDependencies
In some cases, you want to express the compatibility of your package with a
host tool or library, while not necessarily doing a `require` of this host.
This is usually referred to as a *plugin*. Notably, your module may be exposing
a specific interface, expected and specified by the host documentation.
For example:
```json
{
"name": "tea-latte",
"version": "1.3.5",
"peerDependencies": {
"tea": "2.x"
}
}
```
This ensures your package `tea-latte` can be installed *along* with the second
major version of the host package `tea` only. `npm install tea-latte` could
possibly yield the following dependency graph:
```bash
├── tea-latte@1.3.5
└── tea@2.2.0
```
**NOTE: npm versions 1 and 2 will automatically install `peerDependencies` if
they are not explicitly depended upon higher in the dependency tree. In the
next major version of npm (npm@3), this will no longer be the case. You will
receive a warning that the peerDependency is not installed instead.** The
behavior in npms 1 & 2 was frequently confusing and could easily put you into
dependency hell, a situation that npm is designed to avoid as much as possible.
Trying to install another plugin with a conflicting requirement will cause an
error. For this reason, make sure your plugin requirement is as broad as
possible, and not to lock it down to specific patch versions.
Assuming the host complies with [semver](https://semver.org/), only changes in
the host package's major version will break your plugin. Thus, if you've worked
with every 1.x version of the host package, use `"^1.0"` or `"1.x"` to express
this. If you depend on features introduced in 1.5.2, use `">= 1.5.2 < 2"`.
### bundledDependencies
This defines an array of package names that will be bundled when publishing
the package.
In cases where you need to preserve npm packages locally or have them
available through a single file download, you can bundle the packages in a
tarball file by specifying the package names in the `bundledDependencies`
array and executing `npm pack`.
For example:
If we define a package.json like this:
```json
{
"name": "awesome-web-framework",
"version": "1.0.0",
"bundledDependencies": [
"renderized", "super-streams"
]
}
```
we can obtain `awesome-web-framework-1.0.0.tgz` file by running `npm pack`.
This file contains the dependencies `renderized` and `super-streams` which
can be installed in a new project by executing `npm install
awesome-web-framework-1.0.0.tgz`. Note that the package names do not include
any versions, as that information is specified in `dependencies`.
If this is spelled `"bundleDependencies"`, then that is also honored.
### optionalDependencies
If a dependency can be used, but you would like npm to proceed if it cannot be
found or fails to install, then you may put it in the `optionalDependencies`
object. This is a map of package name to version or url, just like the
`dependencies` object. The difference is that build failures do not cause
installation to fail. Running `npm install --no-optional` will prevent these
dependencies from being installed.
It is still your program's responsibility to handle the lack of the
dependency. For example, something like this:
```js
try {
var foo = require('foo')
var fooVersion = require('foo/package.json').version
} catch (er) {
foo = null
}
if ( notGoodFooVersion(fooVersion) ) {
foo = null
}
// .. then later in your program ..
if (foo) {
foo.doFooThings()
}
```
Entries in `optionalDependencies` will override entries of the same name in
`dependencies`, so it's usually best to only put in one place.
### engines
You can specify the version of node that your stuff works on:
```json
{ "engines" : { "node" : ">=0.10.3 <0.12" } }
```
And, like with dependencies, if you don't specify the version (or if you
specify "\*" as the version), then any version of node will do.
If you specify an "engines" field, then npm will require that "node" be
somewhere on that list. If "engines" is omitted, then npm will just assume
that it works on node.
You can also use the "engines" field to specify which versions of npm
are capable of properly installing your program. For example:
```json
{ "engines" : { "npm" : "~1.0.20" } }
```
Unless the user has set the `engine-strict` config flag, this
field is advisory only and will only produce warnings when your package is installed as a dependency.
### engineStrict
**This feature was removed in npm 3.0.0**
Prior to npm 3.0.0, this feature was used to treat this package as if the
user had set `engine-strict`. It is no longer used.
### os
You can specify which operating systems your
module will run on:
```json
"os" : [ "darwin", "linux" ]
```
You can also blacklist instead of whitelist operating systems,
just prepend the blacklisted os with a '!':
```json
"os" : [ "!win32" ]
```
The host operating system is determined by `process.platform`
It is allowed to both blacklist, and whitelist, although there isn't any
good reason to do this.
### cpu
If your code only runs on certain cpu architectures,
you can specify which ones.
```json
"cpu" : [ "x64", "ia32" ]
```
Like the `os` option, you can also blacklist architectures:
```json
"cpu" : [ "!arm", "!mips" ]
```
The host architecture is determined by `process.arch`
### preferGlobal
**DEPRECATED**
This option used to trigger an npm warning, but it will no longer warn. It is
purely there for informational purposes. It is now recommended that you install
any binaries as local devDependencies wherever possible.
### private
If you set `"private": true` in your package.json, then npm will refuse
to publish it.
This is a way to prevent accidental publication of private repositories. If
you would like to ensure that a given package is only ever published to a
specific registry (for example, an internal registry), then use the
`publishConfig` dictionary described below to override the `registry` config
param at publish-time.
### publishConfig
This is a set of config values that will be used at publish-time. It's
especially handy if you want to set the tag, registry or access, so that
you can ensure that a given package is not tagged with "latest", published
to the global public registry or that a scoped module is private by default.
Any config values can be overridden, but only "tag", "registry" and "access"
probably matter for the purposes of publishing.
See [`config`](/using-npm/config) to see the list of config options that can be
overridden.
### DEFAULT VALUES
npm will default some values based on package contents.
* `"scripts": {"start": "node server.js"}`
If there is a `server.js` file in the root of your package, then npm
will default the `start` command to `node server.js`.
* `"scripts":{"install": "node-gyp rebuild"}`
If there is a `binding.gyp` file in the root of your package and you have not defined an `install` or `preinstall` script, npm will
default the `install` command to compile using node-gyp.
* `"contributors": [...]`
If there is an `AUTHORS` file in the root of your package, npm will
treat each line as a `Name <email> (url)` format, where email and url
are optional. Lines which start with a `#` or are blank, will be
ignored.
### SEE ALSO
* [semver](/using-npm/semver)
* [npm init](/cli-commands/npm-init)
* [npm version](/cli-commands/npm-version)
* [npm config](/cli-commands/npm-config)
* [npm help](/cli-commands/npm-help)
* [npm install](/cli-commands/npm-install)
* [npm publish](/cli-commands/npm-publish)
* [npm uninstall](/cli-commands/npm-uninstall)