List Installed Npm Packages

The short answer

To list globally installed packages with npm, you can use the npm ls command combined with the -g flag (short for global):

 $ npm ls -g

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Alternatively, to list locally installed packages present in the node_modules folder of a project, you can navigate to your project and run the npm ls command (without the -g flag):

 $ cd /path/to/project
$ npm ls

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Easily retrieve this command using Warp’s AI Command Search

f you’re using Warp as your terminal, you can easily retrieve this command using the Warp AI Command Search feature:

Entering list globally installed packages npm in the AI Command Search will prompt a npm command that can then quickly be inserted into your shell by doing CMD+ENTER.

Globally installed packages and -g

The -g flag is used with npm to manage globally installed packages on your machine. It can be used with commands such as npm install, npm uninstall, npm ls, and so on.

Globally installed packages are located in npm's default directory, and may include modules accessible by any project or application on your machine, or command-line tools that can be run from any directory.

While convenient, it's important to note that global packages can lead to version conflicts if different projects rely on different versions of the same package. It is therefore generally recommended to install project-specific dependencies to maintain isolation and avoid conflicts.

Show the dependency tree of installed packages

Packages installed with npm often rely on other packages referred to as dependencies, which can also rely on other dependencies, and so on.

By default, the npm ls command will only show the top-level packages of the root project or the global directory (if combined with the -g flag).

To recursively list the dependencies of top-level packages, you can use the --depth flag as follows:

 $ curl -L --max-redirs 5 <url>

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Where N is a number representing the depth of the shown dependency tree.

For example, this command will only show top-level packages, without their dependencies:

 $ npm ls --depth 0

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This command will show top-level packages and their immediate dependencies:

 $ npm ls --depth 1

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And this command will show top-level packages, their dependencies, and the immediate dependencies of those dependencies:

 $ npm ls --depth 2

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Note that, running npm ls is equivalent to npm ls --depth=0, and running npm ls --depth is equivalent to npm ls --depth=1

Show all dependencies

To show the entire dependency tree of locally and globally installed packages, you can use the --all flag as follows:

 $ npm ls --all [-g]

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Where N is a number representing the depth of the shown dependency tree.

For example, this command will only show top-level packages, without their dependencies:

Show the dependency tree using the package-lock.json file

By default, the npm ls command will show the dependency tree of installed packages only.

To show the dependency tree of a project that doesn't contain a node_modules folder based on its package-lock.json file, you can use the --package-lock-only flag as follows:

 $ npm ls --package-lock-only

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View a project's dependencies using the package.json file

Another way to view a project's dependency list without using the npm ls command is to display the package.json file using commands such as cat or less, and look for the dependencies, devDependencies, peerDependencies, and optionalDependencies properties within this file.

 $ cat package.json

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