table of contents
| NPM-RUN(1) | General Commands Manual | NPM-RUN(1) |
NAME¶
npm-run
Synopsis¶
<!-- AUTOGENERATED USAGE DESCRIPTIONS -->
Description¶
This runs an arbitrary command from a package's
"scripts" object.
If no
"command" is provided, it will list the available
scripts.
run[-script] is used by the test, start, restart, and stop
commands, but can be called directly, as well.
When the scripts in the package are printed out, they're separated into
lifecycle (test, start, restart) and directly-run scripts.
Any positional arguments are passed to the specified script.
Use -- to pass --prefixed flags and options which would
otherwise be parsed by npm.
For example:
npm run test -- --grep="pattern"
The arguments will only be passed to the script specified after npm run and not to any pre or post script.
The env script is a special built-in command that can be
used to list environment variables that will be available to the script at
runtime.
If an "env" command is defined in your package, it will take
precedence over the built-in.
In addition to the shell's pre-existing PATH, npm
run adds node_modules/.bin to the PATH provided to
scripts.
Any binaries provided by locally-installed dependencies can be used without
the node_modules/.bin prefix.
For example, if there is a devDependency on tap in your package,
you should write:
"scripts": {"test": "tap test/*.js"}
instead of
"scripts": {"test": "node_modules/.bin/tap test/*.js"}
The actual shell your script is run within is platform dependent.
By default, on Unix-like systems it is the /bin/sh command, on Windows
it is cmd.exe.
The actual shell referred to by /bin/sh also depends on the system.
You can customize the shell with the script-shell config.
Scripts are run from the root of the package folder, regardless of
what the current working directory is when npm run is called.
If you want your script to use different behavior based on what subdirectory
you're in, you can use the INIT_CWD environment variable, which holds
the full path you were in when you ran npm run.
npm run sets the NODE environment variable to the node executable with which npm is executed.
If you try to run a script without having a node_modules directory and it fails, you will be given a warning to run npm install, just in case you've forgotten.
Workspaces support¶
You may use the workspace or workspaces configs in
order to run an arbitrary command from a package's
"scripts" object in the context of the specified
workspaces.
If no "command" is provided, it will list the
available scripts for each of these configured workspaces.
Given a project with configured workspaces, e.g:
. +-- package.json `-- packages
+-- a
| `-- package.json
+-- b
| `-- package.json
`-- c
`-- package.json
Assuming the workspace configuration is properly set up at the
root level package.json file.
e.g:
{
"workspaces": [ "./packages/*" ]
}
And that each of the configured workspaces has a configured test script, we can run tests in all of them using the workspaces config:
npm test --workspaces
Filtering workspaces¶
It's also possible to run a script in a single workspace using the workspace config along with a name or directory path:
npm test --workspace=a
The workspace config can also be specified multiple times
in order to run a specific script in the context of multiple workspaces.
When defining values for the workspace config in the command line, it
also possible to use -w as a shorthand, e.g:
npm test -w a -w b
This last command will run test in both ./packages/a and ./packages/b packages.
Configuration¶
<!-- AUTOGENERATED CONFIG DESCRIPTIONS -->
See Also¶
- npm scripts
- npm test
- npm start
- npm restart
- npm stop
- npm config
- npm workspaces
| May 2026 | 11.13.0 |