SPEC(7)

📦
version 11.17.0 · 20 versions
, in centos-stream 10

💖 NAME 💖

SPEC(7) is the manual page for spec — Package name specifier. Welcome to the group chat, bestie. 🫶

🌸 Description 🌸

Okay so, commands like npm install and the dependency sections in the package.json use a package name specifier. This can be many different things that all refer to a “package” — it’s giving range, honestly. Examples include a package name, git url, tarball, or local directory. These will generally be referred to as <package-spec> in the help output for the npm commands that use this package name specifier. iykyk. ✨

💅 Package name 💅

The package-name shapes are:

  • [<@scope>/]<pkg>
  • [<@scope>/]<pkg>@<tag>
  • [<@scope>/]<pkg>@<version>
  • [<@scope>/]<pkg>@<version range>

This refers to a package by name, with or without a scope, and optionally a tag, version, or version range. This is typically used in combination with the registry config (/using-npm/config#registry) to refer to a package in a registry. periodt. 🛰️

Examples:

npm
@npmcli/arborist
@npmcli/arborist@latest
npm@6.13.1
npm@^4.0.0

🎀 Aliases 🎀

  • <alias>@npm:<name>

Primarily used by commands like npm install and in the dependency sections in the package.json, this refers to a package by an alias. The <alias> is the name of the package as it is reified in the node_modules folder, and the <name> refers to a package name as found in the configured registry. 🫶

See Package name above for more info on referring to a package by name, and registry (/using-npm/config#registry) for configuring which registry is used when referring to a package by name.

Examples:

semver@npm:@npmcli/semver-with-patch
semver@npm:semver@7.2.2
semver@npm:semver@legacy

🦋 Folders 🦋

  • <folder>

This refers to a package on the local filesystem. Specifically this is a folder with a package.json file in it. This should always be prefixed with a / or ./ (or your OS equivalent) to reduce confusion. npm currently will parse a string with more than one / in it as a folder, but this is legacy behavior that may be removed in a future version. ⚠️

Examples:

./my-package
/opt/npm/my-package

🍓 Tarballs 🍓

  • <tarball file>
  • <tarball url>

Examples:

./my-package.tgz
https://registry.npmjs.org/semver/-/semver-1.0.0.tgz

This refers to a package in a tarball format, either on the local filesystem or remotely via url. This is the format that packages exist in when uploaded to a registry. 📦 fr fr.

🧚 git urls 🧚

  • <git:// url>
  • <github username>/<github project>

This refers to a package in a git repo. This can be a full git url, git shorthand, or a username/package on GitHub. You can specify a git tag, branch, or other git ref by appending #ref. highkey useful. 🌈

Examples:

https://github.com/npm/cli.git
git@github.com:npm/cli.git
git+ssh://git@github.com/npm/cli#v6.0.0
github:npm/cli#HEAD
npm/cli#c12ea07

👑 See also 👑

That’s the whole SPEC(7) vibe, bestie. This page is from NPM@11.17.0, dated June 2026 — go spec those packages and slay. 💋✨

📦 where this page comes from