Node Package Manager

There is a lively ecosystem around JavaScript in general and Node in particular. As a result, the community embraced open-source projects. Thus, a plethora of Node libraries and applications are published, and many more are added every day. These open-source projects, called Node packages, are published through Node Package Manager or NPM.

NPM is first and foremost an online repository of software (Node in particular) projects. NPM is the world's largest software registry at the time of writing, with more than a million records.

NPM also provides a command-line interface (CLI) that assists with package installation and dependency management. The NPM CLI is installed with Node.

Node packages are like building blocks that you can put together to make a software application.

You can search for packages on http://npmjs.org/. For example, the Express framework can be found at https://www.npmjs.com/package/express.

Once you have a package you want to install, it can be installed with a single command-line command.