NPM-DEPRECATE(1)

📦
version 12.2.1 · 30 versions
, in arch rolling

💅 npm-deprecate(1) — the deprecation station

okay bestie, so this is the npm-deprecate girlie pop, and she lives in the npm manual. Her whole job? Slapping a "do not install this, queen, it's over" warning on a version of a package. Iconic, honestly.

✨ Synopsis ✨

npm deprecate <package-spec> <message>
heads up 🫶 this command is unaware of workspaces. Like, she does not see them, does not acknowledge them, they are not on her radar. periodt.

🎀 Description 🎀

So what she does is update the npm registry entry for a package and attach a deprecation warning to it — which means literally everyone who tries to install it gets the little warning message. It's giving public service announcement energy 💖

She works on version ranges (that's the whole semver situation over at https://semver.npmjs.com/, iykyk) and on specific versions, so you can absolutely do a little something like this:

npm deprecate my-thing@"< 0.2.3" "critical bug fixed in v0.2.3"

And here's the lil plot twist 👀 the SemVer ranges you pass in get interpreted so that they do include prerelease versions. Example time:

npm deprecate my-thing@1.x "1.x is no longer supported"

In that case a version like my-thing@1.0.0-beta.0 will also get deprecated. No prerelease escapes. she sees all 💀

You must be the package owner to deprecate something — that's the vibe check, no cap. Check out the owner and login help topics if you need to sort that out.

Wanna un-deprecate a package? Bestie, that's easy — just specify an empty string ("") for the message argument. But lowkey important: you have to use double quotes with no space between them to format that empty string. "". that's it. that's the whole thing 🙈

⭐ Configuration ⭐

🌈 registry

The base URL of the npm registry. That's it, that's the address of the whole party.

🔥 otp

  • Default: null
  • Type: null or String

This is a one-time password from a two-factor authenticator. She's needed when you're publishing or changing package permissions with npm access.

If you haven't set it, and a registry response comes back with a challenge asking for a one-time password, npm will prompt you for one right there on the command line. 🫶

🦋 dry-run

  • Default: false
  • Type: Boolean

Tells npm you do not want it making any changes, and that it should only report what it would have done. Very "window shopping, not buying" of you ✨ This can be passed into any of the commands that modify your local installation, eg, install, update, dedupe, uninstall, as well as pack and publish.

⚠️ Note: this is NOT honored by other network related commands, eg dist-tags, owner, etc. So don't come for her when it doesn't work there 💀

👑 See Also 👑

  • npm help "package spec"
  • npm help publish
  • npm help registry
  • npm help owner
  • npm help login

okay that's the whole page, no crumbs left 🍓 this was npm@12.2.1, from October 2026, and honestly? she ate. go deprecate something responsibly, bestie 💜✨

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