Step 0: You need some code to share.
Create a new Github repo or choose one you currently want to publish
Here is the command line argument to create a repo called “adder”
$ curl -u <your_username> https://api.github.com/user/repos -d "{\"name\": \"adder\"}"
Once you have chosen a Github repo clone it
Step 1: Create a proper package.json
The best way to do this is to run the npm init command
$ npm init
This will insure you have the required package.json file with name and version set.
Step 2: Publish
$ npm publish
If you are not logged in, you will need to run npm login
Thats it!
Step 3: Test your npm package
Double check your package information with $ npm info <package_name>
Alternatively, go to another repo and run $ npm install <package_name>
Congrats! Your code is out in the wild on the npm registry 🙂
Troubleshooting: Package name already exists
You might run into the issue where someone else has taken the name of your npm package. Note that you can set a different name on npm than your github repo. One option is get super creative with your npm package name and change the “name” key in package.json. Another option is to namespace your package to your username like this:
"name": @theptrk/expressÂ
and then publishing this with the public flag
$ npm publish --access=public
What if I want to publish a new version?
npm will reject your package if you do not bump the version number. Use npm version and choose either major, minor, or patch. This is the example for patch
$ npm version {major, minor, patch}
$ npm publish
