Node.js - install npm package locally

In this article, we would like to show you how to install npm package locally in Node.js.

As a local installation, we understand the packages are installed in the current project directory only.

Quick solution:

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npm install package-name

or shorter:

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npm i package-name

Notes:

• that approach is useful when the project uses specific packages versions (it is most common way to install packages in a project),
• go to last section to see how to install packages that are used only in developlemnt.

In this section, we present 2 installation variants: normal and development dependency installation.

Local installation in the current directory:

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npm install package-name

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# or:

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npm install package-name-1 package-name-2 package-name-N

Before npm 5 we needed to use one of the variants:

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npm install --save package-name

npm install --save package-name-1 package-name-2 package-name-N

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npm install -S package-name

npm install -S package-name-1 package-name-2 package-name-N

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npm i -S package-name

npm i -S package-name-1 package-name-2 package-name-N

Development dependencies are not built into the production package - they are needed only for development,
e.g. nodemon, all @types/..., eslint, jest, typescript, etc.

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npm install -D package-name

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# or:

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npm install -D package-name-1 package-name-2 package-name-N

or:

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npm install --save-dev package-name

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# or:

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npm install --save-dev package-name-1 package-name-2 package-name-N