Npm link for local development

How to effectively work with a project spread on multiple npm packages.

THE PROBLEM

Let’s say you have a project named main, this project has a dependency external which is also developed by you.

Now you want to add a new feature to main which requires a change in both npm packages.

THE FIX

1. Go to the external dependency you want to work on, in my case, it’s external.
2. Create a symbolic link with npm link

npm link

3. Go to the package that uses the external dependency, in my case, it’s main

npm link external

external is the name that is defined in the package.json name property.

4. Enjoy that sweet developer experience

Originally published at https://carstenbehrens.com.