How to install an npm package from GitHub directly?

Question

Trying to install modules from github results in:

ENOENT error on package.json.

Easily reproduced using express:

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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

npm install git+ssh://git@github.com:<githubname>/<githubrepo.git[#<commit-ish>]
npm install git+ssh://git@github.com:<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>[#semver:^x.x]
npm install git+https://git@github.com/<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 longstanding 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 https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/3055.

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

You could also do

npm i alex-cory/fasthacks

or

npm i github:alex-cory/fasthacks

Basically:

npm i user_or_org/repo_name

Answer 6

If git is not installed, we can try

npm install --save https://github.com/Amitesh/gulp-rev-all/tarball/master