better-sort-package-json

better-sort-package-json

Sorts a package.json file following these rules:

1. The root properties follow the order they appear in the NPM package.json specification, then the Node.JS fields, and finally all the other properties.
2. The string arrays in the root, such as keywords and files, are sorted alphabetically.
3. The properties in script are sorted alphabetically but placing the "pre" and "post" scripts along with before and after its target.
4. All other nested objects have their properties sorted in alphabetical order.

Motivation and prior art

Other packages like sort-package-json already exist but there is no way to customize the sorting rule applied and I was looking for a simpler set matching current practices at Hemi.

CLI

This package can be installed globally, then used to sort package.json files:

npm install --global better-sort-package-json
better-sort-package-json <path-to-a-package-json-file-to-sort>

In addition, it can be used without installing it:

npx better-sort-package-json <path-to-a-package-json-file-to-sort>

API

Install the package:

npm install better-sort-package-json

Then use it to sort the contents of a package.json:

import * as fs from "node:fs";
import { sortPackageJson } from "better-sort-package-json";

fs.writeFileSync(path, sortPackageJson(fs.readFileSync(path, "utf8")));

Automatically sort on commit

To i.e. let lint-staged take care of sorting the package.json automatically, but without altering the formatting done by Prettier, this configuration can be used:

{
  "*.json,!package.json": ["prettier --write"],
  "package.json": ["better-sort-package-json", "prettier --write"]
}