Azure Artifacts: Publish a private npm package with Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps has a feature called Azure Artifacts that supports publishing npm packages to a feed for consumption. Publishing a private npm package with Azure DevOps is a common scenario for teams that want to share code across projects or organizations. This post shows how to publish a private npm package with Azure DevOps.
Publishing a private npm package with Azure DevOps is fairly straightforward, but surprisingly documentation is a little sparse.
What feeds are available in Azure Artifacts?
If you don't already have a feed to publish your npm package to, you can create one in Azure DevOps by following these instructions.
If you're trying to find out what feeds are available in Azure Artifacts, you can find them in the Azure DevOps UI. Go to the Artifacts section in Azure DevOps and you'll see a list of feeds. The URL for the feed will be in the format https://dev.azure.com/[ORGANIZATION]/_artifacts/feed
.
There you'll see a dropdown with the feeds you have access to:
You'll see from the screenshot that I have access to a feed called npmrc-script-organization
. Let's use that feed to publish a private npm package.
Setting up the .npmrc
file
So that you can publish to a private feed, you need to set up an .npmrc
file in your project. This file will contain the URL of the feed you want to publish to, and your credentials. To set up the .npmrc
file, you can click on the "Connect to Feed" button in the Azure DevOps UI:
Then select npm
and you'll see the instructions for setting up the .npmrc
file:
Publishing with Azure Pipelines
Now we're ready to publish our npm package with Azure DevOps. Here's an example of an Azure Pipelines YAML file that publishes a private npm package:
trigger:
batch: true
pool:
vmImage: ubuntu-latest
variables:
isMainBranch: ${{ eq(variables['Build.SourceBranch'], 'refs/heads/main') }}
stages:
- stage: Build_Package_Publish
displayName: Build package and publish
jobs:
- job:
steps:
- task: NodeTool@0
inputs:
versionSpec: 20
displayName: Install Node.js
- task: npmAuthenticate@0
inputs:
workingFile: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/.npmrc
- bash: npm install
displayName: 'npm install'
- bash: npm run build
displayName: 'npm build'
- task: Npm@1
displayName: Publish Package
inputs:
command: 'publish'
publishRegistry: 'useFeed'
publishFeed: 'npmrc-script-organization'
Let's break down the steps in this YAML file:
- We're installing Node.js and authenticating with the
.npmrc
file. - We're running
npm install
andnpm run build
. These are standard steps for building a Node.js project; yours might vary; what's important is that you are able to get your built package set up. - Finally, we use the
Npm@1
task to publish the package. We specify thepublishRegistry
asuseFeed
and thepublishFeed
asnpmrc-script-organization
. This is the feed we're publishing to.
Conclusion
In this post, we've seen how to publish a private npm package with Azure DevOps. We've set up the .npmrc
file, and we've used an Azure Pipelines YAML file to publish the package. This is a common scenario for teams that want to share code across projects or organizations. I hope this post has been helpful to you!