Recreate dependencies from the lockfile

Medium risk
What do risk levels mean?
Read-only
Inspects state without changing anything.
Low risk
Reversible with a routine follow-up command.
Medium risk
Changes state; undo path documented.
Destructive
Deletes or overwrites; confirmation required.

Verifies that a package lock is present, then removes the existing dependency tree and installs exactly the versions recorded in package-lock.json.

nodenpmclean-install

Commands

Confirm the command is running from the intended package root

npm pkg get name

Replace node_modules from the lockfile without executing lifecycle scripts

npm ci --ignore-scripts

Verification

npm ls --depth=0

Direct dependencies are present without missing or invalid package errors.

Undo

Not undoable

Extraneous or manually changed files previously under node_modules cannot be reconstructed by npm.

Pitfalls

  • npm ci fails when package.json and package-lock.json disagree; update and commit the lockfile intentionally instead.
  • Lifecycle scripts are disabled; packages that require build or install scripts may need separately reviewed setup afterward.

Related