Master Yarn: Quick npm-to-yarn Cheat Sheet for Faster JavaScript Development

Yarn is a Facebook‑created JavaScript package manager that works like npm; if you know npm, you can quickly start using Yarn.

The fastest installation method is using npm: npm i -g yarn, or the official script: curl -o- -L https://yarnpkg.com/install.sh | bash.

You Must Know

npm install === yarn Yarn’s default behavior is to install modules.

npm install taco --save === yarn add taco Yarn writes the dependency to package.json .

npm uninstall taco --save === yarn remove taco Yarn updates package.json automatically, unlike npm where you need npm config set save true to omit --save .

npm install taco --save-dev === yarn add taco --dev

npm update --save === yarn upgrade

npm install taco@latest --save === yarn add taco

npm install taco --global === yarn global add taco

What You Already Know

Yarn is a new installer fully compatible with npm’s structure, packages, and registry, so the following commands should be familiar. npm init ===

yarn init

npm link

===

yarn link

npm outdated

===

yarn outdated

npm publish

===

yarn publish

npm run

===

yarn run

npm cache clean

===

yarn cache clean

npm login

===

yarn login (and logout)

npm test

===

yarn test

Features Yarn Has That npm Lacks

yarn licenses ls

– lists licenses of dependencies. yarn licenses generateDisclaimer – prints license disclaimer. yarn why taco – explains why a dependency is installed and shows dependent modules.

Beautiful emoji characters.

Speed.

Built‑in shrinkwrap via yarn.lock to lock dependency versions.

Security‑first design.

Features npm Has That Yarn Lacks

npm xmas

– prints a Christmas tree in the console. npm visnup – prints the avatar of visnup (a geeky Easter egg).

Yarn’s run command is currently less reliable; improvements are planned for version 0.15.2, whereas npm is ahead in this area.