semantic-release plugin to publish a npm package
npm install @semantic-release/npmsemantic-release plugin to publish a npm package.
| Step | Description |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| verifyConditions | Verify the presence of the NPM_TOKEN environment variable, or an .npmrc file, and verify the authentication method is valid. |
| prepare | Update the package.json version and create the npm package tarball. |
| addChannel | Add a release to a dist-tag. |
| publish | Publish the npm package to the registry. |
> [!TIP]
> You do not need to directly depend on this package if you are using semantic-release.
> semantic-release already depends on this package, and defining your own direct dependency can result in conflicts when you update semantic-release.
``bash`
$ npm install @semantic-release/npm -D
The plugin can be configured in the semantic-release configuration file:
`json`
{
"plugins": ["@semantic-release/commit-analyzer", "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator", "@semantic-release/npm"]
}
When publishing to the official registry, it is recommended to publish with authentication intended for automation:
- For improved security, and since access tokens have recently had their maximum lifetimes restricted,
trusted publishing is recommended when publishing from a supported CI provider
- Granular access tokens are recommended when publishing from a CI provider that is not supported by npm for trusted publishing, and can be set via environment variables.
Because these access tokens expire, rotation will need to be accounted for in this scenario.
> [!NOTE]
> When using trusted publishing, provenance attestations are automatically generated for your packages without requiring provenance to be explicitly enabled.
#### Trusted publishing from GitHub Actions
To leverage trusted publishing and publish with provenance from GitHub Actions, the id-token: write permission is required to be enabled on the job:
`yaml`
permissions:
id-token: write # to enable use of OIDC for trusted publishing and npm provenance
It's also worth noting that if you are using semantic-release to its fullest with a GitHub release, GitHub comments,
and other features, then more permissions are required to be enabled on this job:
`yaml`
permissions:
contents: write # to be able to publish a GitHub release
issues: write # to be able to comment on released issues
pull-requests: write # to be able to comment on released pull requests
id-token: write # to enable use of OIDC for trusted publishing and npm provenance
Refer to the GitHub Actions recipe for npm package provenance for the full CI job's YAML code example.
#### Trusted publishing for GitLab Pipelines
To leverage trusted publishing and publish with provenance from GitLab Pipelines, NPM_ID_TOKEN needs to be added as an entry under id_tokens in the job definition with an audience of npm:registry.npmjs.org:
`yaml`
id_tokens:
NPM_ID_TOKEN:
aud: "npm:registry.npmjs.org"
See the npm documentation for more details about configuring pipeline details
#### Unsupported CI providers
Token authentication is required and can be set via environment variables.
Granular access tokens are recommended in this scenario, since trusted publishing is not available from all CI providers.
Because these access tokens expire, rotation will need to be accounted for in your process.
Token authentication is required and can be set via environment variables.
See the documentation for your registry for details on how to create a token for automation.
| Variable | Description |
| ----------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| NPM_TOKEN | Npm token created via npm token create |
| Options | Description | Default |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| npmPublish | Whether to publish the npm package to the registry. If false the package.json version will still be updated. | false if the package.json private property is true, true otherwise. |pkgRoot
| | Directory path to publish. | . |tarballDir
| | Directory path in which to write the package tarball. If false the tarball is not be kept on the file system. | false |
Note: The pkgRoot directory must contain a package.json. The version will be updated only in the package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json within the pkgRoot directory.
Note: If you use a shareable configuration that defines one of these options you can set it to false in your semantic-release configuration in order to use the default value.
The plugin uses the npm CLI which will read the configuration from .npmrc. See npm config for the option list.
The registry can be configured via the npm environment variable NPM_CONFIG_REGISTRY and will take precedence over the configuration in .npmrc.
The registry, dist-tag, and provenance can be configured under publishConfig in the package.json:
`json`
{
"publishConfig": {
"registry": "https://registry.npmjs.org/",
"tag": "latest",
"provenance": true
}
}
Notes:
- The presence of an .npmrc file will override any specified environment variables.registry
- The presence of or dist-tag under publishConfig in the package.json will take precedence over the configuration in .npmrc and NPM_CONFIG_REGISTRY
The npmPublish and tarballDir option can be used to skip the publishing to the npm registry and instead, release the package tarball with another plugin. For example with the @semantic-release/github plugin:
`json`
{
"plugins": [
"@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
"@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
[
"@semantic-release/npm",
{
"npmPublish": false,
"tarballDir": "dist"
}
],
[
"@semantic-release/github",
{
"assets": "dist/*.tgz"
}
]
]
}
When publishing from a sub-directory with the pkgRoot option, the package.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json updated with the new version can be moved to another directory with a postversion. For example with the @semantic-release/git plugin:
`json`
{
"plugins": [
"@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
"@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
[
"@semantic-release/npm",
{
"pkgRoot": "dist"
}
],
[
"@semantic-release/git",
{
"assets": ["package.json", "npm-shrinkwrap.json"]
}
]
]
}
`json``
{
"scripts": {
"postversion": "cp -r package.json .. && cp -r npm-shrinkwrap.json .."
}
}