npm or Node package manager

Learn what npm is, how to use it, and how it fits in to the Gatsby ecosystem.

What is npm?

npm, or Node package manager, is the default package manager for the Node.js JavaScript runtime. It lets you install and update libraries and frameworks (dependencies) for Node-based projects, and interact with the npm Registry. You’ll use npm to install and upgrade Gatsby and its plugins.

npm is a command line tool. You’ll need Terminal (Mac, Linux) or Command Prompt (Windows) in order to run its commands. To use one of npm’s features, type npm <command>. For example, npm help displays a list of available features, including install, uninstall, update, and search.

npm is installed alongside Node during the default installation process. You don’t need to take any additional steps to add it to your environment.

Using npm to install Gatsby

You’ll need to install Gatsby globally to use Gatsby CLI commands such as gatsby new. To do so, use npm install with the --global or -g flag.

Once the installation completes, you can run gatsby new my-project to create a new Gatsby project.

Using npx to install Gatsby

Note: npx requires npm version 5.2 or later. If you’ve installed the latest versions of Node and npm, you should also have npx. Otherwise, you should upgrade Node and/or npm.

You can also use npx to install Gatsby. npx ships with npm. It allows you to install a package and run a command in one step. For example, instead of running npm install -g gatsby-cli then gatsby new my-project, you could use the following command.

This will download and install the latest version of Gatsby, then create a new Gatsby project in the my-project folder. Choosing this method will not make the Gatsby CLI globally available, however. If you install Gatsby using npx, you’ll need to use npx gatsby or npm run to execute Gatsby commands, e.g.: npx gatsby develop or npm run develop.

Using npm to install Gatsby plugins

Gatsby has a robust collection of plugins that add functionality or data sourcing to your Gatsby sites. Adding a plugin as a project dependency uses the same process as installing Gatsby itself. Use npm install <package-name>. To add the gatsby-source-filesystem, plugin, for example, you’d use the following command.

Note: Use npm install to add plugins, even if you installed Gatsby using npx.

Note: You’ll still need to update gatsby-config.js to add the plugin’s functionality to your site.

This will update the dependencies list of package.json and package-lock.json. Commit both files to your project’s repository. Doing so makes it easy to keep your Gatsby project consistent across team members and computers. When another team member clones your repository, they can use npm install to install the dependencies included in package-lock.json.

Learn more about npm

• npm official website
• Node.js official website
• An introduction to the npm package manager from Nodejs.dev
• Set Up Your Development Environment from the Gatsby docs