@semantic-release/npm

What is @semantic-release/npm?

The @semantic-release/npm package is designed to automate the process of releasing new versions of npm packages. It updates the package version in package.json and publishes the package to the npm registry based on semantic versioning rules and the commit messages history. This tool is part of the Semantic Release ecosystem, which aims to fully automate the package release workflow, including determining the next version number, generating the release notes, and publishing the package.

What are @semantic-release/npm's main functionalities?

Update package version

This configuration snippet for the Semantic Release setup in the package.json file demonstrates how to automatically update the package version in package.json and publish the package to the npm registry. The 'npmPublish' option is set to true to enable publishing.

"release": {
  "prepare": [
    {
      "path": "@semantic-release/npm",
      "npmPublish": true
    }
  ]
}

Publish to npm registry

This configuration enables the automatic publishing of the package to the npm registry as part of the release process. It specifies that the @semantic-release/npm plugin should be used for the publishing step.

"release": {
  "publish": [
    {
      "path": "@semantic-release/npm",
      "npmPublish": true
    }
  ]
}

Other packages similar to @semantic-release/npm

standard-version

Standard Version is a utility for versioning using semver and CHANGELOG generation powered by conventional commits. Unlike @semantic-release/npm, it is more focused on manual versioning control and does not automatically publish to npm, but it automates version bumping and changelog generation.

release-it

Release It! is a CLI tool to automate versioning and package publishing, similar to @semantic-release/npm. It supports various plugins for different release steps, including changelog generation, version bumping, and publishing. Release It! offers more configurability for manual intervention in the release process compared to the fully automated approach of @semantic-release/npm.

README

@semantic-release/npm

Set of semantic-release plugins for publishing to a npm registry.

verifyConditions

Verify the presence of the NPM_TOKEN environment variable, create or update the .npmrc file with the token and verify the token is valid.

prepare

Update the package.json version and create the npm package tarball.

publish

Publish to the npm registry.

Configuration

Npm registry authentication

The npm authentication configuration is required and can be set via environment variables.

Both the token and the legacy (username, password and email) authentication are supported. It is recommended to use the token authentication. The legacy authentication is supported as the alternative npm registries Artifactory and npm-registry-couchapp only supports that form of authentication at this point.

Note: Only the auth-only level of npm two-factor authentication is supported, semantic-release will not work with the default auth-and-writes level.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
NPM_TOKEN	Npm token created via npm token create
NPM_USERNAME	Npm username created via npm adduser or on npmjs.com
NPM_PASSWORD	Password of the npm user.
NPM_EMAIL	Email address associated with the npm user

Use either NPM_TOKEN for token authentication or NPM_USERNAME, NPM_PASSWORD and NPM_EMAIL for legacy authentication

Options

Options	Description	Default
npmPublish	Whether to publish the npm package to the registry. If false the package.json version will still be updated.	false if the package.json private property is true, true otherwise.
pkgRoot	Directory path to publish.	.
tarballDir	Directory path in which to write the the package tarball. If false the tarball is not be kept on the file system.	false

Note: The pkgRoot directory must contains a package.json. The version will be updated only in the package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json within the pkgRoot directory.

Note: If you use a shareable configuration that defines one of these options you can set it to false in your semantic-release configuration in order to use the default value.

Npm configuration

The plugins are based on npm and will use the configuration from .npmrc. See npm config for the option list.

The registry and dist-tag can be configured in the package.json and will take precedence over the configuration in .npmrc:

{
  "publishConfig": {
    "registry": "https://registry.npmjs.org/",
    "tag": "latest"
  }
}

Usage

The plugins are used by default by semantic-release so no specific configuration is required to use them.

Each individual plugin can be disabled, replaced or used with other plugins in the package.json:

{
  "release": {
    "verifyConditions": ["@semantic-release/npm", "verify-other-condition"],
    "prepare": ["@semantic-release/npm", "custom-prepare"],
    "publish": ["@semantic-release/npm", "custom-publish"]
  }
}

The npmPublish and tarballDir option can be used to skip the publishing to the npm registry and instead, release the package tarball with another plugin. For example with the github plugin:

{
  "release": {
    "verifyConditions": ["@semantic-release/npm", "@semantic-release/git", "@semantic-release/github"],
    "prepare": ["@semantic-release/npm"],
    "publish": ["@semantic-release/npm", "@semantic-release/github"],
    "npmPublish": false,
    "tarballDir": "dist",
    "assets": "dist/*.tgz"
  }
}

When publishing from a sub-directory with the pkgRoot option, the package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json updated with the new version can be moved to another directory with a postpublish npm script. For example with the git plugin:

{
  "release": {
    "verifyConditions": ["@semantic-release/npm", "@semantic-release/git"],
    "prepare": ["@semantic-release/npm", "@semantic-release/git"],
    "publish": ["@semantic-release/npm"],
    "pkgRoot": "dist",
    "assets": ["package.json", "npm-shrinkwrap.json"]
  },
  "scripts": {
    "postpublish": "cp -r dist/package.json . && cp -r dist/npm-shrinkwrap.json ."
  }
}