1228

Trying to install modules from GitHub results in this error:

ENOENT error on package.json.

Easily reproduced using express:

npm install https://github.com/visionmedia/express throws error.

npm install express works.

Why can't I install from GitHub?

Here is the console output:

npm http GET https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git
npm http 200 https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git
npm ERR! not a package /home/guym/tmp/npm-32312/1373176518024-0.6586997057311237/tmp.tgz
npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, open '/home/guym/tmp/npm-32312/1373176518024-0.6586997057311237/package/package.json'
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <[email protected]>

npm ERR! System Linux 3.8.0-23-generic
npm ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git"
npm ERR! cwd /home/guym/dev_env/projects_GIT/proj/somename
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.10
npm ERR! npm -v 1.2.25
npm ERR! path /home/guym/tmp/npm-32312/1373176518024-0.6586997057311237/package/package.json
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno 34
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/guym/dev_env/projects_GIT/proj/somename/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0
3
  • 2
    Can anyone give the package.json devDependencies format?
    – Adam
    Commented Sep 17, 2016 at 18:47
  • 7
    @Adam you can add "express": "github:visionmedia/express" to the "dependencies" section of package.json file, then run: npm install (as mentioned below)
    – Danny
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 1:48
  • @danny, that doesn't work for me. i wonder if there was a dist folder in that express repo to enable it.
    – ml242
    Commented Jan 11, 2018 at 17:14

24 Answers 24

1564

Because https://github.com/visionmedia/express is the URL of a web page and not an npm module. Use this flavor: git+{url}.git

git+https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git

or this flavor if you need SSH:

git+ssh://[email protected]/visionmedia/express.git

or if you need to install a GitHub Enterprise repository:

git+https://<github enterprise url>/<org>/<repo>.git#<branch>
18
  • 106
    You can also use git+https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git to use https rather than ssh. Commented Jul 7, 2013 at 10:36
  • 60
    Note that repository you want to install must be a npm module, it must contain a package.json file or else you will get this error: Error: ENOENT, open 'tmp.tgz-unpack/package.json'.
    – GabLeRoux
    Commented Jul 28, 2014 at 14:18
  • 32
    what if I want a specific branch
    – kilianc
    Commented Oct 22, 2014 at 20:21
  • 6
    Only solution I think of for now is to specify a commit with .../express.git#commit Commented Dec 8, 2014 at 18:23
  • 66
    Worth saying that you might need to escape the # to use a specific branch from the shell, i.e.: npm install git+https://github.com/user/repo.git\#branch
    – mor
    Commented Jul 7, 2015 at 13:57
848

To install from GitHub, you can also do

npm install visionmedia/express

Or

npm install visionmedia/express#branch

There is also support for installing directly from a Gist, Bitbucket, GitLab, and a number of other specialized formats. Look at the npm install documentation for them all.

14
  • 41
    What, without specifying URL? How does npm know which flavor hosting service you're using? Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 15:39
  • 41
    @Jake Rayson: it's possible since version 1.1.65 and works for github.com only.
    – ezze
    Commented Sep 30, 2014 at 13:03
  • 7
    Didn't work for me on Windows - it just tried to install from a subfolder of my current directory. Commented Dec 4, 2014 at 22:54
  • 11
    Note this doesn't work on global installs (i.e. npm i repo/pkg -g) as of npm 1.4.28 Commented May 23, 2015 at 15:16
  • 3
    Note that you need a package.json file in there. Commented Oct 28, 2015 at 17:33
224

If Git is not installed, we can try:

npm install --save https://github.com/Amitesh/gulp-rev-all/tarball/master
6
  • 4
    You can also use tag names in place of master. Probably safer to do it that way.
    – mpen
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 19:30
  • 6
    Nice for when you are working with branches, you should modify your answer to include a general format answer, i didn't notice the /tarball/ at first
    – Lu Roman
    Commented Apr 11, 2016 at 4:46
  • 2
    This is the only answer which worked for me when installing a dependency from within a Docker container. Commented Apr 18, 2019 at 13:06
  • 3
    This is also perfect for not requiring the entire repo to be downloaded. Thanks!
    – som
    Commented Feb 4, 2020 at 12:54
  • 1
    This is a method which instead of installing compiled artifacts, installs the source code for the repo. Depends on what you need, but this was exactly what I wanted. Thanks! Commented Jan 4 at 14:25
85

As of September 2016, installing from vanilla HTTPS GitHub URLs now works:

npm install https://github.com/fergiemcdowall/search-index.git

You can't do this for all modules because you are reading from a source control system, which may well contain invalid/uncompiled/buggy code. So to be clear (although it should go without saying): given that the code in the repository is in an npm-usable state, you can now quite happily install directly from GitHub.

In October 2019, we are now living through "peak TypeScript/React/Babel", and therefore JavaScript compilation has become quite common. If you need to take compilation into account, look into prepare. That said, NPM modules do not need to be compiled, and it is wise to assume that compilation is not the default, especially for older node modules (and possibly also for very new, bleeding-edge "ESNext"-y ones).

13
  • 18
    You can't install any npm package you want from its GitHub source, unless the repo includes a dist folder, and most don't. The issue I linked to is an npm bug - the prebuild step is not run when installing from GitHub. As an example, try installing node-influx/node-influx. Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 18:31
  • 5
    Repos without dist folders CAN be installed from GitHub, for example: npm install https://github.com/fergiemcdowall/search-index-adder works perfectly.
    – Fergie
    Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 8:50
  • 8
    Right, because you have the directly usabel source in /lib (as if you had a dist folder). My point is that just including the GitHub URL of a repo in package.jons isn't guaranteed to work for installing that repo. Modules written in TypeScript, for example, need push their transpiled code into the repo. They typically don't do this, but rather use a prepublish script to dump the .JS code into a dist folder, which gets uploaded to npmjs.com. Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 10:30
  • 3
    I know this is a bit late, but the trick is actually npm does not have a 1-to-1 mapping to Git repositories. Some projects build their source files before publishing rather than before committing, meaning they are NOT in the Git repo, but would be in the npm package - projects doing this will not work right from Git. Another example of how this can fail is macro repositories - Babel's GitHub project, for example, includes hundreds of individual npm packages in subfolders. They can be published individually because npm does not map directly to Git. npm publishes whatever is in your directory. Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 19:03
  • 27
    For anyone who stumbles upon this later... As of npm5, npm will run any prepare script for bare "installs", which includes git deps. Which means the above comments around compilation and dist folders is out of date. Any package that properly sets their compilation to run on prepare will work just fine as a git dep without committing any compiled assets into git.
    – jasonkarns
    Commented Nov 10, 2017 at 5:37
83

The methods are covered pretty well now in npm's install documentation as well as the numerous other answers here.

npm install git+ssh://[email protected]:<githubname>/<githubrepo.git[#<commit-ish>]
npm install git+ssh://[email protected]:<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>[#semver:^x.x]
npm install git+https://[email protected]/<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>
npm install git://github.com/<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>
npm install github:<githubname>/<githubrepo>[#<commit-ish>]

However, something notable that has changed recently is npm adding the prepare script to replace the prepublish script. This fixes a long-standing problem where modules installed via Git did not run the prepublish script and thus did not complete the build steps that occur when a module is published to the npm registry. See Run prepublish for Git URL packages #3055.

Of course, the module authors will need to update their package.json file to use the new prepare directive for this to start working.

4
  • 2
    Watch out for issues with .gitignore files! stackoverflow.com/questions/48287776/… Commented May 12, 2021 at 17:53
  • 1
    Note that the git:// protocol is no longer supported (it was when this answer was written)
    – Taylor
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 19:17
  • This answer is excessive here and duplicates the previous answers. Commented Aug 19, 2023 at 17:17
  • 1
    @SergeyNevmerzhitsky I wrote this answer 6 years ago and was the first to mention npm's prepare script addition in the context of installing directly from a github repo. Not sure what's excessive about including the basic install commands, links to various documentation, and very specific info about the prepare directive. Commented Aug 22, 2023 at 4:25
61

There's also npm install https://github.com/{USER}/{REPO}/tarball/{BRANCH} to use a different branch.

4
  • I ran into this issue...github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/2738 I was able to change the registry to the github tarball registry and it worked.. Thanks!
    – Matt Goo
    Commented Jul 17, 2017 at 21:51
  • This resolved some major performance issues for me. Using {USER}/{REPO}.git#{BRANCH} was very slow. Commented Oct 22, 2017 at 12:35
  • THIS ^^^^ is what I'd been looking for. My library relies on a build step and didn't have a prepare script. I was just trying to install a branch of the whole repo in a test repo, but since the built code wasn't checked into GitHub, all that got installed was package.json and the readme. This tarball approach using the full URL installed all the source files, which is what I needed.
    – jdunning
    Commented Sep 20, 2020 at 23:14
  • @jdunning You do not need to check your compiled code into git to use the prepare method! You just need to watch out for issues from also including a .gitignore: stackoverflow.com/questions/48287776/… Commented May 12, 2021 at 17:58
50

The current top answer by Peter Lyons is not relevant with recent NPM versions. For example, using the same command that was criticized in this answer is now fine.

npm install https://github.com/visionmedia/express

If you have continued problems it might be a problem with whatever package you were using.

1
33

This works for me and it is less typing.

npm i github:<UserName>/<RepoName>

package.json

{
    "dependencies": {
        "name": "github:<UserName>/<RepoName>"
    }
}
3
  • This way is baller! Commented Jan 20, 2022 at 1:20
  • This works with yarn.
    – Peter
    Commented Mar 29, 2022 at 11:19
  • This also works with pnpm. Great. Commented Sep 7, 2023 at 7:36
29

The general form of the syntax is

<protocol>://[<user>[:<password>]@]<hostname>[:<port>][:][/]<path>[#<commit-ish> | #semver:<semver>]

which means for your case it will be

npm install git+ssh://[email protected]/visionmedia/express.git

From npmjs docs:

npm install :

Installs the package from the hosted git provider, cloning it with git. For a full git remote url, only that URL will be attempted.

<protocol>://[<user>[:<password>]@]<hostname>[:<port>][:][/]<path>[#<commit-ish>

| #semver:] is one of git, git+ssh, git+http, git+https, or git+file.

If # is provided, it will be used to clone exactly that commit. If the commit-ish has the format #semver:, can be any valid semver range or exact version, and npm will look for any tags or refs matching that range in the remote repository, much as it would for a registry dependency. If neither # or

semver: is specified, then master is used.

If the repository makes use of submodules, those submodules will be cloned as well.

If the package being installed contains a prepare script, its dependencies and devDependencies will be installed, and the prepare script will be run, before the package is packaged and installed.

The following git environment variables are recognized by npm and will be added to the environment when running git:

  • GIT_ASKPASS
  • GIT_EXEC_PATH
  • GIT_PROXY_COMMAND
  • GIT_SSH
  • GIT_SSH_COMMAND
  • GIT_SSL_CAINFO GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY

See the git man page for details.

Examples:

npm install git+ssh://[email protected]:npm/npm.git#v1.0.27
npm install git+ssh://[email protected]:npm/npm#semver:^5.0
npm install git+https://[email protected]/npm/npm.git
npm install git://github.com/npm/npm.git#v1.0.27
GIT_SSH_COMMAND='ssh -i ~/.ssh/custom_ident' npm install git+ssh://[email protected]:npm/npm.git npm install
26

You can do:

npm install git://github.com/foo/bar.git

Or in package.json:

"dependencies": {
  "bar": "git://github.com/foo/bar.git"
}
18

Install it directly:

npm install visionmedia/express

Alternatively, you can add "express": "github:visionmedia/express" to the "dependencies" section of package.json file, then run:

npm install
17

Sometimes I need to install from a specific branch or commit. To make things simple I just use https://gitpkg.vercel.app/

enter image description here

14

You could also do

npm i alex-cory/fasthacks

or

npm i github:alex-cory/fasthacks

Basically:

npm i user_or_org/repo_name
11

You can directly install a GitHub repository by the npm install command, like this:

npm install https://github.com/futurechallenger/npm_git_install.git --save

NOTE: In the repository which will be installed by npm command:

  1. maybe you have to have a dist folder in you repository, according to Dan Dascalescu's comment.
  2. You definitely have to have a package.json in your repository! Which I forget add.
1
  • 1
    You do not need a dist folder or any build code in your repo. You just need to use a prepare script in package.json. Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 9:03
8

Simple:

npm install *GithubUrl*.git --save

Example:

npm install https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git --save
4

Below piece of code worked for me to install from github repository:

npm install git+ssh://<your_repository_ssh_clone_link>#<branch_name_if_any>

You can get ssh clone link as below:

ssh clone screenshot

So for above screenshot repository, you may need to import as below,

npm install git+ssh://[email protected]:Siddhu2/calculator-chatbot.git#master

where master is my branch and it is optional since I have only one branch.

4

No need to do much; this helped me:

Yarn add <git_name>:<github_name>/<Repository_name>.git

Example:

yarn add [email protected]:myGitHub/dynamic-checkbox-input.git

And if you want to add some specific commit or branch name then add #.

Example:

yarn add [email protected]:myGitHub/dynamic-checkbox-input.git#master

Example:

yarn add [email protected]:myGitHub/dynamic-checkbox-input.git#c978U57
0
2

I tried npm install git+https://github.com/visionmedia/express but that took way too long and I wasn't sure that would work.

What did work for me was - yarn add git+https://github.com/visionmedia/express.

2

If you get something like this:

npm ERR! enoent undefined ls-remote -h -t https://github.com/some_repo/repo.git

Make sure you update to the latest npm and that you have permissions as well.

2

The only command that worked for me was npm i MY_PACKAGE_NAME:MY_REPOSITORY#BRANCH_NAME

2

Consider one final resolution that could prove beneficial.

If you encounter difficulties, it's possible that an incorrect package URL is present in the package.json under dependencies or devDependencies.

Remove any such entries and attempt the operation again. For an improved troubleshooting experience, temporarily remove both dependencies and devDependencies and then retry:

npm i git+https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git

1

Yarn 2 requires the package name along with the Github repository. Read the documentation of Yarn's CLI.

Example: yarn add <package_name>[email protected]:<owner_name>/<package_name>.git

1

Can also update your packages.json as:

"dependencies": {
    ...
    "express": "github:visionmedia/express",
    ...
}

Then execute npm update or pnpm update if you have pnpm installed.

-4

Try this command:

 npm install github:[Organisation]/[Repository]#[master/BranchName] -g

This command worked for me:

 npm install github:BlessCSS/bless#3.x -g
2
  • The version is the tag / branch name or the package.json version ?
    – mfrachet
    Commented Aug 25, 2016 at 13:56
  • Why two commands? Should both be used (in that order). Or only one or the other? This is not clear. Can you elaborate? Please respond by editing (changing) your answer, not here in comments (without "Edit:", "Update:", or similar - the answer should appear as if it was written today). Commented Jul 18, 2021 at 21:55

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