git-publish

Publish your npm package to a Git branch.

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Why?

For testing published packages without publishing to npm.

Making a prerelease to npm using npm publish has the following drawbacks:

Needs a unique version for every release.
Hard to remove due to npm's strict unpublish policy.
Cumbersome to verify the contents of the published package.
Production environment—risky if you make a mistake (eg. accidentally publish as stable).

Using npm link has the drawback of not running npm life cycle scripts and including non-publishable assets.

In contrast, git-publish has the following benefits:

Unversioned Instead of versions, branch names are used. Branches can be updated to reflect latest change.
Deletable Simply delete the branch when you're done with it.
Browsable Use GitHub to verify the contents of the branch. You can even share a link for others to see.
Dev environment Low risk of mistakes.
Simulates npm publish Runs npm life cycle scripts and only includes publishable assets.

Usage

Publish your npm package to a branch on the Git repository:

npx git-publish

⚠️ Warning: This command will force-push to the remote branch npm/<current branch>. Make sure there are no unsaved changes there.

Global install

Keep the command handy by installing it globally:

npm install -g git-publish

When globally installed, you can use it without npx:

git-publish

Flags

Flag	Description
`-b, --branch <branch name>`	The branch to publish the package to. Defaults to prefixing "npm/" to the current branch or tag name.
`-r, --remote <remote>`	The remote to push to. (default: `origin`)
`-d, --dry`	Dry run mode. Will not commit or push to the remote.
`-h, --help`	Show help
`--version`	Show version

FAQ

What are some use-cases where this is useful?

When you want to test a new package that isn't ready to be published on npm.
When you're contributing to an open source project so you don't have publish access, but want to test the changes in a production-like environment.
When you want to test in a remote environment so you can't use npm link.
When you want to avoid using npm link because of symlink complexities.

How can I include a build step?

Call the build command it in the prepack script.

What does this script do?

Run npm hooks prepare & prepack
Create a temporary branch by prefixing the current branch with the npm/ namespace
Detect and commit the npm publish files
Force push the branch to remote
Delete local branch from Step 2
Print the installation command for the branch

How is this different from simply committing the files to a branch?

There can be missing distribution files (eg. files outside of dist). git-publish uses npm-packlist —the same library npm publish uses—to detect publish files declared via package.json#files and .npmignore.
Irrelevant files are committed (eg. source files). This can slow down installation or even interfere with the library behavior. For example, if your project has development configuration files, they can accidentally be read by the dependent tooling.
npm hooks are not executed. git-publish simulates package packing and runs hooks prepare and prepack.

Can I publish to and install from a private repository?

Yes, if using a Git client authorized to access the private repository.

If it must be publicly accessible, you can set the --remote <remote> flag to push the publish assets to a public repository. It's recommended to compile and minify the code if doing this with private code.

User story

You want to test a branch on a private repository Repo A, but GitHub Actions on the consuming project Repo B doesn't have access to the private repository so npm install fails.

To work around this, you can publish the branch to Repo B to install it from there:

$ npx git-publish --remote git@github.com:repo-b.git --branch test-pkg

✔ Successfully published branch! Install with command:
  → npm i 'repo-b#test-pkg'

sarahquigley/git-publish