7 Essential npm Tricks Every Developer Should Know

We all use npm daily; here are seven useful tips to make your experience smoother.

List globally installed modules

To see which packages were installed globally with npm i -g, run:

npm ls -g --depth 0

Add auto‑completion for npm commands

If you find npm commands hard to remember, you can enable Bash auto‑completion with: npm completion >> ~/.bashrc For Zsh, use:

npm completion >> ~/.zshrc

Check modules for security vulnerabilities

Many dependencies may contain known issues; tools like snyk can scan them. Install and monitor with:

npm i -g snyk
cd ~/code/my-node-project/
snyk monitor

Note: snyk requires an accompanying web service.

Set per‑project npm configuration

Running npm config stores settings in ~/.npmrc. You can place a .npmrc file in a project’s root to override defaults for that project only.

View the effective config with npm config list or npm config list -l to see all values.

Change npm log level

The npm install command supports seven log levels: silent, error, warn, http, info, verbose, silly (default is warn). To see HTTP request details, set the level to http: npm config set loglevel http Or specify it per command:

npm install <em>package</em> --loglevel=http

Link local dependencies for easier development

To modify a local module (e.g., cookie) and test it in an Express project, use npm link:

cd cookie
npm link          # link module globally
cd ../express
npm link cookie   # link global cookie into the project
npm i              # install remaining dependencies

Ensure safe module execution

Enforce engine strictness so npm refuses packages that don’t match your Node version: npm config set engine-strict true To block all lifecycle scripts (e.g., postinstall) for security, set:

npm config set ignore-scripts