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Corepack is a zero-runtime-dependency Node.js script that acts as a bridge between Node.js projects and the package managers they are intended to be used with during development. In practical terms, Corepack will let you use Yarn and pnpm without having to install them - just like what currently happens with npm, which is shipped by Node.js by default.
Important: At the moment, Corepack only covers Yarn and pnpm. Given that we have little control on the npm project, we prefer to focus on the Yarn and pnpm use cases. As a result, Corepack doesn’t have any effect at all on the way you use npm.
Corepack is distributed by default with Node.js 14.19.0 and 16.9.0,
but is opt-in for the time being. Run corepack enable
to
install the required shims.
First uninstall your global Yarn and pnpm binaries (just leave npm). In general, you’d do this by running the following command:
npm uninstall -g yarn pnpm
# That should be enough, but if you installed Yarn without going through npm it might
# be more tedious - for example, you might need to run `brew uninstall yarn` as well.
Then install Corepack:
npm install -g corepack
We do acknowledge the irony and overhead of using npm to install Corepack, which is at least part of why the preferred option is to use the Corepack version that is distributed along with Node.js itself.
Just use your package managers as you usually would. Run
yarn install
in Yarn projects, pnpm install
in
pnpm projects, and npm
in npm projects. Corepack will catch
these calls, and depending on the situation:
If the local project is configured for the package manager you’re using, Corepack will silently download and cache the latest compatible version.
If the local project is configured for a different package manager, Corepack will request you to run the command again using the right package manager - thus avoiding corruptions of your install artifacts.
If the local project isn’t configured for any package manager, Corepack will assume that you know what you’re doing, and will use whatever package manager version has been pinned as “known good release”. Check the relevant section for more details.
Set your package’s manager with the packageManager
field
in package.json
:
{
"packageManager": "yarn@3.2.3+sha224.953c8233f7a92884eee2de69a1b92d1f2ec1655e66d08071ba9a02fa"
}
Here, yarn
is the name of the package manager, specified
at version 3.2.3
, along with the SHA-224 hash of this
version for validation. packageManager@x.y.z
is required.
The hash is optional but strongly recommended as a security practice.
Permitted values for the package manager are yarn
,
npm
, and pnpm
.
When running Corepack within projects that don’t list a supported package manager, it will default to a set of Known Good Releases. In a way, you can compare this to Node.js, where each version ships with a specific version of npm.
If there is no Known Good Release for the requested package manager, Corepack looks up the npm registry for the latest available version and cache it for future use.
The Known Good Releases can be updated system-wide using the
--activate
flag from the corepack prepare
and
corepack hydrate
commands.
The utility commands detailed in the next section.
Either you can use the network while building your container
image, in which case you’ll simply run corepack prepare
to
make sure that your image includes the Last Known Good release for the
specified package manager.
--all
flag which will do
just that.Or you’re publishing your project to a system where the network
is unavailable, in which case you’ll preemptively generate a package
manager archive from your local computer (using
corepack prepare -o
) before storing it somewhere your
container will be able to access (for example within your repository).
After that it’ll just be a matter of running
corepack hydrate <path/to/corepack.tgz>
to setup the
cache.
corepack <binary name>[@<version>] [... args]
This meta-command runs the specified package manager in the local folder. You can use it to force an install to run with a given version, which can be useful when looking for regressions.
Note that those commands still check whether the local project is
configured for the given package manager (ie you won’t be able to run
corepack yarn install
on a project where the
packageManager
field references pnpm
).
corepack enable [... name]
Option | Description |
---|---|
--install-directory |
Add the shims to the specified location |
This command will detect where Node.js is installed and will create shims next to it for each of the specified package managers (or all of them if the command is called without parameters). Note that the npm shims will not be installed unless explicitly requested, as npm is currently distributed with Node.js through other means.
corepack disable [... name]
Option | Description |
---|---|
--install-directory |
Remove the shims to the specified location |
This command will detect where Node.js is installed and will remove the shims from there.
corepack prepare [... name@version]
Option | Description |
---|---|
--all |
Prepare the “Last Known Good” version of all supported package managers |
-o,--output |
Also generate an archive containing the package managers |
--activate |
Also update the “Last Known Good” release |
This command will download the given package managers (or the one
configured for the local project if no argument is passed in parameter)
and store it within the Corepack cache. If the -o,--output
flag is set (optionally with a path as parameter), an archive will also
be generated that can be used by the corepack hydrate
command.
corepack hydrate <path/to/corepack.tgz>
Option | Description |
---|---|
--activate |
Also update the “Last Known Good” release |
This command will retrieve the given package manager from the specified archive and will install it within the Corepack cache, ready to be used without further network interaction.
COREPACK_DEFAULT_TO_LATEST
can be set to
0
in order to instruct Corepack not to lookup on the remote
registry for the latest version of the selected package
manager.
COREPACK_ENABLE_NETWORK
can be set to 0
to prevent Corepack from accessing the network (in which case you’ll be
responsible for hydrating the package manager versions that will be
required for the projects you’ll run, using
corepack hydrate
).
COREPACK_ENABLE_STRICT
can be set to 0
to prevent Corepack from throwing error if the package manager does not
correspond to the one defined for the current project. This means that
if a user is using the package manager specified in the current project,
it will use the version specified by the project’s
packageManager
field. But if the user is using other
package manager different from the one specified for the current
project, it will use the system-wide package manager version.
COREPACK_ENABLE_PROJECT_SPEC
can be set to
0
to prevent Corepack from checking if the package manager
corresponds to the one defined for the current project. This means that
it will always use the system-wide package manager regardless of what is
being specified in the project’s packageManager
field.
COREPACK_HOME
can be set in order to define where
Corepack should install the package managers. By default it is set to
%LOCALAPPDATA%\node\corepack
on Windows, and to
$HOME/.cache/node/corepack
everywhere else.
COREPACK_ROOT
has no functional impact on Corepack
itself; it’s automatically being set in your environment by Corepack
when it shells out to the underlying package managers, so that they can
feature-detect its presence (useful for commands like
yarn init
).
COREPACK_NPM_REGISTRY
sets the registry base url
used when retrieving package managers from npm. Default value is
https://registry.npmjs.org
COREPACK_NPM_TOKEN
sets a Bearer token authorization
header when connecting to a npm type registry.
COREPACK_NPM_USERNAME
and
COREPACK_NPM_PASSWORD
to set a Basic authorization header
when connecting to a npm type registry. Note that both environment
variables are required and as plain text. If you want to send an empty
password, explicitly set COREPACK_NPM_PASSWORD
to an empty
string.
HTTP_PROXY
, HTTPS_PROXY
, and
NO_PROXY
are supported through node-proxy-agent
.
See CONTRIBUTING.md
.
See DESIGN.md
.
See LICENSE.md
.