How to install an npm package from GitHub directly

Question

Trying to install modules from github results in:

ENOENT error on package.json.

Easily reproduced using express:

npm install https://github.com/visionmedia/express throws error.

npm install express works.

Why can't I install from github?

Here is the console output:

npm http GET https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git
npm http 200 https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git
npm ERR! not a package /home/guym/tmp/npm-32312/1373176518024-0.6586997057311237/tmp.tgz
npm ERR! Error: ENOENT, open '/home/guym/tmp/npm-32312/1373176518024-0.6586997057311237/package/package.json'
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this log at:
npm ERR!     <http://github.com/isaacs/npm/issues>
npm ERR! or email it to:
npm ERR!     <[e-mail]>

npm ERR! System Linux 3.8.0-23-generic
npm ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "https://github.com/visionmedia/express.git"
npm ERR! cwd /home/guym/dev_env/projects_GIT/proj/somename
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.10
npm ERR! npm -v 1.2.25
npm ERR! path /home/guym/tmp/npm-32312/1373176518024-0.6586997057311237/package/package.json
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! errno 34
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/guym/dev_env/projects_GIT/proj/somename/npm-debug.log
npm ERR! not ok code 0

Answer 1

You can also do npm install visionmedia/express to install from Github

or

npm install visionmedia/express#branch

There is also support for installing directly from a Gist, Bitbucket, Gitlab, and a number of other specialized formats. Look at the npm install documentation for them all.

Answer 2

Install it directly:

npm install visionmedia/express

Alternatively, you can add "express": "github:visionmedia/express" to the "dependencies" section of package.json file, then run:

npm install

Answer 3

UPDATE sept 2016

Installing from vanilla https github URLs now seems to work:

npm install https://github.com/fergiemcdowall/search-index.git

EDIT: there are a couple of users commenting that you cant do this for all modules because you are reading from a source control system, which may well contain invalid/uncompiled/buggy code. So to be clear (although it should go without saying): given that the code in the repo is in an npm-usable state, you can now quite happily install directly from github

Answer 4

The current top answer by Peter Lyons is not relevant with recent NPM versions. For example, using the same command that was criticized in this answer is now fine.

$ npm install https://github.com/visionmedia/express

If you have continued problems it might be a problem with whatever package you were using.

Answer 5

Try this command

 npm install github:[Organisation]/[Repository]#[master/BranchName] -g

this command worked for me.

 npm install github:BlessCSS/bless#3.x -g

Answer 6

The methods are covered pretty well now in npm's install documentation as well as the numerous other answers here.

npm install git+ssh://[e-mail]:<githubname>/<githubrepo.git[#<commit-ish>]
npm install git+ssh://[e-mail]:<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>[#semver:^x.x]
npm install git+https://[e-mail]/<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>
npm install git://github.com/<githubname>/<githubrepo.git>
npm install github:<githubname>/<githubrepo>[#<commit-ish>]

However, something notable that has changed recently is npm adding the prepare script to replace the prepublish script. This fixes a longstanding problem where modules installed via git did not run the prepublish script and thus did not complete the build steps that occur when a module is published to the npm registry. See https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/3055.

Of course, the module authors will need to update their package.json to use the new prepare directive for this to start working.