NPM-EXPLAIN(1)

💅 NAME 💅

npm-explain — Explain installed packages

okay so this is the NPM-EXPLAIN(1) manual page, bestie — welcome to the dependency-receipts zone. 💖

📜 Synopsis 📜

npm explain <package-spec>

alias: why

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Okay so this command will print the chain of dependencies causing a given package to be installed in the current project — literally the receipts, bestie. 🔥

If one or more package specs are provided, then only packages matching one of the specifiers will have their relationships explained.

The package spec can also refer to a folder within ./node_modules.

For example, running npm explain glob within npm's source tree will show:

glob@7.1.6
node_modules/glob
  glob@"^7.1.4" from the root project

glob@7.1.1 dev
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/glob
  glob@"^7.0.5" from rimraf@2.6.2
  node_modules/tacks/node_modules/rimraf
    rimraf@"^2.6.2" from tacks@1.3.0
    node_modules/tacks
      dev tacks@"^1.3.0" from the root project

To explain just the package residing at a specific folder, pass that as the argument to the command. This can be useful when trying to figure out exactly why a given dependency is being duplicated to satisfy conflicting version requirements within the project.

$ npm explain node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@3.0.0 dev
node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
  find-up@"^3.0.0" from nyc@14.1.1
  node_modules/nyc
    nyc@"^14.1.1" from tap@14.10.8
    node_modules/tap
      dev tap@"^14.10.8" from the root project

---

⚙️ CONFIGURATION ⚙️

🍓 json 🍓

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.

• In npm pkg set it enables parsing set values with JSON.parse() before saving them to your package.json.

Not supported by all npm commands. 💀

🌈 workspace 🌈

• Default:
• Type: String (can be set multiple times)

Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of the current project while filtering by running only the workspaces defined by this configuration option. 💖

Valid values for the workspace config are either:

• Workspace names
• Path to a workspace directory
• Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all workspaces within that folder)

When set for the npm init command, this may be set to the folder of a workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up as a brand new workspace within the project.

This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.

---

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• npm help "package spec"
• npm help config
• npm help npmrc
• npm help folders
• npm help ls
• npm help install
• npm help link
• npm help prune
• npm help outdated
• npm help update

---

okay bestie, that's the whole page 💖 this manual is from NPM@12.2.1, dated October 2026 — now go explain some packages, periodt. 🫶