---
title: npm-ci
section: 1

description: Clean install a project

Synopsis

npm ci

aliases: clean-install, ic, install-clean, isntall-clean

Description

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.

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 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"

Configuration

install-strategy

• Default: "hoisted"
• 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.

legacy-bundling

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean
• 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.

global-style

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean
• 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.

omit

• Default: 'dev' if the NODE_ENV environment variable is set to
  'production', otherwise empty.
• 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.

include

• Default:
• 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.

strict-peer-deps

• Default: false
• 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.

foreground-scripts

• Default: false unless when using npm pack or npm publish where it
  defaults to true
• 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.

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.

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.

bin-links

• Default: true
• 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.

fund

• Default: true
• Type: Boolean

When "true" displays the message at the end of each npm install
acknowledging the number of dependencies looking for funding. See npm fund for details.

dry-run

• Default: false
• 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.

workspace

• Default:
• 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:

• Workspace names
• Path to a workspace directory
• 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

• Default: null
• 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:

• 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.

include-workspace-root

• Default: false
• 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.

install-links

• Default: false
• 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.

See Also

• npm install
• package-lock.json