Configure and use npm with CodeArtifact - CodeArtifact
Configuring npm with the login commandConfiguring npm without using the login commandRunning npm commandsVerifying npm authentication and authorizationChanging back to the default npm registryTroubleshooting slow installs with npm 8.x or higher

Configure and use npm with CodeArtifact

After you create a repository in CodeArtifact, you can use the npm client to install and publish packages. The recommended method for configuring npm with your repository endpoint and authorization token is by using the aws codeartifact login command. You can also configure npm manually.

Configuring npm with the login command

Use the aws codeartifact login command to fetch credentials for use with npm.

Note

If you are accessing a repository in a domain that you own, you don't need to include --domain-owner. For more information, see Cross-account domains.

Important

If you are using npm 10.x or newer, you must use AWS CLI version 2.9.5 or newer to successfully run the aws codeartifact login command.

aws codeartifact login --tool npm --domain my_domain --domain-owner 111122223333 --repository my_repo

This command makes the following changes to your ~/.npmrc file:

  • Adds an authorization token after fetching it from CodeArtifact using your AWS credentials.

  • Sets the npm registry to the repository specified by the --repository option.

  • For npm 6 and lower: Adds "always-auth=true" so the authorization token is sent for every npm command.

The default authorization period after calling login is 12 hours, and login must be called to periodically refresh the token. For more information about the authorization token created with the login command, see Tokens created with the login command.

Configuring npm without using the login command

You can configure npm with your CodeArtifact repository without the aws codeartifact login command by manually updating the npm configuration.

To configure npm without using the login command

  1. In a command line, fetch a CodeArtifact authorization token and store it in an environment variable. npm will use this token to authenticate with your CodeArtifact repository.

    Note

    The following command is for macOS or Linux machines. For information on configuring environment variables on a Windows machine, see Pass an auth token using an environment variable.

    CODEARTIFACT_AUTH_TOKEN=`aws codeartifact get-authorization-token --domain my_domain --domain-owner 111122223333 --query authorizationToken --output text`

  2. Get your CodeArtifact repository's endpoint by running the following command. Your repository endpoint is used to point npm to your repository to install or publish packages.

    • Replace my_domain with your CodeArtifact domain name.

    • Replace 111122223333 with the AWS account ID of the owner of the domain. If you are accessing a repository in a domain that you own, you don't need to include --domain-owner. For more information, see Cross-account domains.

    • Replace my_repo with your CodeArtifact repository name.

    aws codeartifact get-repository-endpoint --domain my_domain --domain-owner 111122223333 --repository my_repo --format npm

    The following URL is an example repository endpoint.

    https://my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/npm/my_repo/
    Important

    The registry URL must end with a forward slash (/). Otherwise, you cannot connect to the repository.

  3. Use the npm config set command to set the registry to your CodeArtifact repository. Replace the URL with the repository endpoint URL from the previous step.

    npm config set registry=https://my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.region.amazonaws.com/npm/my_repo/

  4. Use the npm config set command to add your authorization token to your npm configuration.

    npm config set //my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.region.amazonaws.com/npm/my_repo/:_authToken=$CODEARTIFACT_AUTH_TOKEN

    For npm 6 or lower: To make npm always pass the auth token to CodeArtifact, even for GET requests, set the always-auth configuration variable with npm config set. 

    npm config set //my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.region.amazonaws.com/npm/my_repo/:always-auth=true

Example npm configuration file (.npmrc)

The following is an example .npmrc file after following the preceding instructions to set the CodeArtifact registry endpoint, add an authentication token, and configure always-auth. 

registry=https://my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/npm/my-cli-repo/
//my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/npm/my_repo/:_authToken=eyJ2ZX...
//my_domain-111122223333.d.codeartifact.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/npm/my_repo/:always-auth=true

Running npm commands

After you configure the npm client, you can run npm commands. Assuming that a package is present in your repository or one of its upstream repositories, you can install it with npm install. For example, use the following to install the lodash package.

npm install lodash

Use the following command to publish a new npm package to a CodeArtifact repository.

npm publish

For information about how to create npm packages, see Creating Node.js Modules on the npm documentation website. For a list of npm commands supported by CodeArtifact, see npm Command Support.

Verifying npm authentication and authorization

Invoking the npm ping command is a way to verify the following:

  • You have correctly configured your credentials so that you can authenticate to an CodeArtifact repository.

  • The authorization configuration grants you the ReadFromRepository permission.

The output from a successful invocation of npm ping looks like the following.

$ npm -d ping
npm info it worked if it ends with ok
npm info using npm@6.4.1
npm info using node@v9.5.0
npm info attempt registry request try #1 at 4:30:59 PM
npm http request GET https://<domain>.d.codeartifact.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/npm/shared/-/ping?write=true
npm http 200 https:///npm/shared/-/ping?write=true
Ping success: {}
npm timing npm Completed in 716ms
npm info ok

The -d option causes npm to print additional debug information, including the repository URL. This information makes it easy to confirm that npm is configured to use the repository you expect.

Changing back to the default npm registry

Configuring npm with CodeArtifact sets the npm registry to the specified CodeArtifact repository. You can run the following command to set the npm registry back to its default registry when you're done connecting to CodeArtifact.

npm config set registry https://registry.npmjs.com/

Troubleshooting slow installs with npm 8.x or higher

There is a known issue in npm versions 8.x and greater where if a request is made to a package repository, and the repository redirects the client to Amazon S3 instead of streaming the assets directly, the npm client can hang for several minutes per dependency.

Because CodeArtifact repositories are designed to always redirect the request to Amazon S3, sometimes this issue occurs, which causes long build times due to long npm install times. Instances of this behavior will present themselves as a progress bar showing for several minutes.

To avoid this issue, use either the --no-progress or progress=false flags with npm cli commands, as shown in the following example.

npm install lodash --no-progress