Publish packages to npm automatically in GitHub Actions by updating the version number.
-
🧠 Smart Only publishes if the version number in
package.jsondiffers from the latest on npm. -
🛠 Configurable Customize the version-checking behavior, the registry URL, and path of your package.
-
🔐 Secure Keeps your npm authentication token secret. Doesn't read nor write to
~/.npmrc. -
⚡ Fast 100% JavaScript (which is faster than Docker) and bundled to optimize loading time.
-
📤 Outputs Exposes the old and new version numbers, and the type of change (major, minor, patch, etc.) as variables that you can use in your workflow.
This package can be used three different ways:
-
🤖 A GitHub Action as part of your CI/CD process
-
🧩 A function that you call in your JavaScript code
-
🖥 A CLI that you run in your terminal
To use the GitHub Action, you'll need to add it as a step in your workflow file. By default, the only thing you need to do is set the token parameter to your npm authentication token.
on:
push:
branches: main
jobs:
publish:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: "20"
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test
- uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}You can also publish to third-party registries. For example, to publish to the GitHub Package Registry, set token to secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN and registry to https://npm.pkg.github.com:
on:
push:
branches: main
jobs:
publish:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
permissions:
contents: read
packages: write # allow GITHUB_TOKEN to publish packages
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: "20"
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test
- uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
with:
token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
registry: "https://npm.pkg.github.com"You can set any or all of the following input parameters using with:
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
token |
string | required | Authentication token to use with the configured registry. |
registry¹ |
string | https://registry.npmjs.org/ |
Registry URL to use. |
package |
string | Current working directory | Path to a package directory, a package.json, or a packed .tgz to publish. |
tag¹ |
string | latest |
Distribution tag to publish to. |
access¹ |
public, restricted |
npm defaults | Whether the package should be publicly visible or restricted. |
provenance¹ ² |
boolean | false |
Run npm publish with the --provenance flag to add provenance statements. |
strategy |
all, upgrade |
all |
Use all to publish all unique versions, upgrade for only semver upgrades. |
ignore-scripts |
boolean | true |
Run npm publish with the --ignore-scripts flag as a security precaution. |
dry-run |
boolean | false |
Run npm publish with the --dry-run flag to prevent publication. |
- May be specified using
publishConfiginpackage.json. - Provenance requires npm
>=9.5.0.
npm-publish exposes several output variables, which you can use in later steps of your workflow if you provide an id for the npm-publish step.
steps:
- uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
+ id: publish
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
+ - if: ${{ steps.publish.outputs.type }}
+ run: echo "Version changed!"| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id |
string | Package identifier of the release: ${name}@${version} or empty if no release. |
type |
string | Semver release type, initial if first release, different if other change, or empty if no release. |
name |
string | Name of the package. |
version |
string | Version of the package. |
old-version |
string | Previously published version on tag or empty if no previous version on tag. |
tag |
string | Distribution tag the package was published to. |
access |
string | Access level the package was published with, or default if scoped-package defaults were used. |
registry |
string | Registry the package was published to. |
dry-run |
boolean | Whether npm publish was run in "dry run" mode. |
To use npm-package in your JavaScript code, you'll need to install it using npm or other package manager of choice:
npm install --save-dev @jsdevtools/npm-publishYou can then import it and use it in your code like this:
import { npmPublish } from "@jsdevtools/npm-publish";
// Run npm-publish with all defaults
await npmPublish({ token: "YOUR_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN_HERE" });As shown in the example above, you should pass an options object to the npmPublish function. In TypeScript, the Options interface is available as an import.
import type { Options } from "@jsdevtools/npm-publish";| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
token |
string | required | Authentication token to use with the configured registry. |
registry¹ |
string, URL |
https://registry.npmjs.org/ |
Registry URL to use. |
package |
string | Current working directory | Path to a package directory, a package.json, or a packed .tgz to publish. |
tag¹ |
string | latest |
Distribution tag to publish to. |
access¹ |
public, restricted |
npm defaults | Whether the package should be publicly visible or restricted. |
provenance¹ ² |
boolean | false |
Run npm publish with the --provenance flag to add provenance statements. |
strategy |
all, upgrade |
all |
Use all to publish all unique versions, upgrade for only semver upgrades. |
ignoreScripts |
boolean | true |
Run npm publish with the --ignore-scripts flag as a security precaution. |
dryRun |
boolean | false |
Run npm publish with the --dry-run flag to prevent publication. |
logger |
object | undefined |
Logging interface with debug, info, and error log methods. |
temporaryDirectory |
string | os.tmpdir() |
Temporary directory to hold a generated .npmrc file |
- May be specified using
publishConfiginpackage.json. - Provenance requires npm
>=9.5.0.
The npmPublish() function returns a promise of a Results object. In TypeScript, the Results interface is available as an import.
import type { Results } from "@jsdevtools/npm-publish";| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
id |
Optional string | Package identifier of the release: ${name}@${version} or undefined if no release. |
type |
Optional string | Semver release type, initial if first release, different if other change, or undefined if no release. |
name |
string | Name of the package. |
version |
string | Version of the package. |
oldVersion |
Optional string | Previously published version on tag or undefined if no previous version. |
tag |
string | Distribution tag that the package was published to. |
access |
Optional string | Access level the package was published with, or undefined if scoped-package defaults were used. |
registry |
URL |
Registry the package was published to. |
dryRun |
boolean | Whether npm publish was run in "dry run" mode. |
You can also use npm-publish as a command-line tool in your terminal.
npm install --save-dev @jsdevtools/npm-publishYou can then use it in your terminal or in npm run scripts.
npx npm-publish --token YOUR_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN_HEREYou can customize your call with options to change the registry, package, etc.
npx npm-publish --token YOUR_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN_HERE --registry http://example.com ./path/to/packageRun npm-publish --help to see the full list of options available.
Usage:
npm-publish <options> [package]
Arguments:
package The path to the package to publish.
May be a directory, package.json, or .tgz file.
Defaults to the package in the current directory.
Options:
--token <token> (Required) npm authentication token.
--registry <url> Registry to read from and write to.
Defaults to "https://registry.npmjs.org/".
--tag <tag> The distribution tag to check against and publish to.
Defaults to "latest".
--access <access> Package access, may be "public" or "restricted".
See npm documentation for details.
--provenance Publish with provenance statements.
See npm documentation for details.
--strategy <strategy> Publish strategy, may be "all" or "upgrade".
Defaults to "all", see documentation for details.
--no-ignore-scripts Allow lifecycle scripts, which are disabled by default
as a security precaution. Defaults to false.
--dry-run Do not actually publish anything.
--quiet Only print errors.
--debug Print debug logs.
-v, --version Print the version number.
-h, --help Show usage text.
Examples:
$ npm-publish --token abc123 ./my-package
Major releases of the action and libraries may contain breaking changes, documented here. For more detailed change logs, see releases.
The v3 release does not require any changes to how you use npm-publish from v2. The version of Node.js used by the action was updated to v20 due to GitHub Action's deprecation of Node.js v16. The minimum required version of Node.js for the library and CLI remains v16.
The v2 release made several breaking changes to inputs, outputs, and behaviors that were present in v1. The examples below focus on the action, but the same changes are applicable to the library and CLI, too.
The check-version and greater-version-only boolean options were replaced with the strategy option:
strategy: all(default) will publish any version that does not yet exist in the registrystrategy: upgradewill publish only if the version is a semver upgrade of the requesteddist-tag
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
- check-version: true
- greater-version-only: false
+ strategy: all
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
- check-version: true
- greater-version-only: true
+ strategy: upgradecheck-version: false has been removed. If you only need to publish, without first checking whether the version exists in the registry, you can use npm directly instead:
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: '18'
+ registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org/
- - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v1
- with:
- token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
- check-version: false
+ - run: npm publish
+ env:
+ NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}The type output is now an empty string instead of 'none' when no release occurs
- run: echo "Version changed!"
- if: ${{ steps.publish.outputs.type != 'none' }}
+ if: ${{ steps.publish.outputs.type }}The --ignore-scripts option is now passed to npm publish as a security precaution. If you define any publish lifecycle scripts - prepublishOnly, prepack, prepare, postpack, publish, postpublish - we recommend you run that logic as a separate explicit build step.
+ - run: npm run build
- - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v1
+ - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}If you can't change your build, you can set the ignore-scripts input to false as a workaround. Be aware that failures during a lifecycle script can be difficult to debug, and any stdout/stderr output from your build script could interfere with how npm-publish interprets results from the npm CLI.
- - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v1
+ - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
+ ignore-scripts: falseThe global .npmrc file is no longer read nor modified. This means the token option is now required for the library and CLI. (It was already required for the action.) You may have workarounds in place referencing INPUT_TOKEN, which v1 erroneously wrote to .npmrc. These workarounds should be removed.
- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
with:
node-version: '18'
registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org/
- - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v1
+ - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v3
with:
token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
- name: Do some more stuff with npm
run: npm whoami
env:
- INPUT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
+ NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}npm-publish is 100% free and open-source, under the MIT license. Use it however you want.
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