Sort Package.json

Pass it a JSON string, it'll return a new JSON string, sorted by the keys typically found in a package.json

Pass it an object, it'll return an object sorted by the keys typically found in a package.json

JSON.stringify(sortPackageJson({
  dependencies: {},
  version: '1.0.0',
  keywords: ['thing'],
  name: 'foo',
}), null, 2)
/* string:
{
  "name": "foo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "keywords": [
    "thing"
  ],
  "dependencies": {}
}
*/

CLI Usage:

$ cd my-project
$ cat package.json
{
  "dependencies": {},
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "keywords": [
    "thing"
  ],
  "name": "foo"
}
$ npm i -g sort-package-json
$ sort-package-json
Ok, your package.json is sorted
$ cat package.json
{
  "name": "foo",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "keywords": [
    "thing"
  ],
  "dependencies": {}
}

Install

API

npm install --save sort-package-json

CLI

npm install --global sort-package-json

PFAQ: Potential Frequently Asked Questions

How does it sort?

It sorts using sort-object-keys. It sorts using the well-known keys of a package.json. For the full list it's just easier to read the code. It sorts sub-keys too - sometimes by a well-known order, other times alphabetically. The initial order was derived from the package.json docs with a few extras added for good measure.

It doesn't sort X?

Cool. Send a PR! It might get denied if it is a specific vendor key of an unpopular project (e.g. "my-super-unknown-project"). We sort keys like "browserify" because it is a project with millions of users. If your project has, say, over 100 users, then we'll add it. Sound fair?

Isn't this just like Project X?

Could be. I wanted this one because at the time of writing, nothing is:

• Zero config
• Able to be used in a library
• Quiet (i.e. not spitting out annoying log messages, when used in a library mode)

What?! Why would you want to do this?!

Well, it's nice to have the keys of a package.json in a well sorted order. Almost everyone would agree having "name" at the top of a package.json is sensible (rather than sorted alphabetically or somewhere silly like the bottom), so why not the rest of the package.json?