---
section: cli-commands 
title: npm-publish
description: Publish a package
---

# npm-publish(1)

## Publish a package

### Synopsis
```bash
npm publish [<tarball>|<folder>] [--tag <tag>] [--access <public|restricted>] [--otp otpcode] [--dry-run]

Publishes '.' if no argument supplied
Sets tag 'latest' if no --tag specified
```

### Description

Publishes a package to the registry so that it can be installed by name. All
files in the package directory are included if no local `.gitignore` or
`.npmignore` file exists. If both files exist and a file is ignored by
`.gitignore` but not by `.npmignore` then it will be included.  See
[`developers`](/using-npm/developers) for full details on what's included in the published package, as well as details on how the package is built.

By default npm will publish to the public registry. This can be overridden by
specifying a different default registry or using a [`scope`](/using-npm/npm-scope) in the name (see [`package.json`](/configuring-npm/package-json)).

* `<folder>`:
  A folder containing a package.json file

* `<tarball>`:
  A url or file path to a gzipped tar archive containing a single folder
  with a package.json file inside.

* `[--tag <tag>]`
  Registers the published package with the given tag, such that `npm install
  <name>@<tag>` will install this version.  By default, `npm publish` updates
  and `npm install` installs the `latest` tag. See [`npm-dist-tag`](npm-dist-tag) for
  details about tags.

* `[--access <public|restricted>]`
  Tells the registry whether this package should be published as public or
  restricted. Only applies to scoped packages, which default to `restricted`.
  If you don't have a paid account, you must publish with `--access public`
  to publish scoped packages.

* `[--otp <otpcode>]`
  If you have two-factor authentication enabled in `auth-and-writes` mode
  then you can provide a code from your authenticator with this. If you
  don't include this and you're running from a TTY then you'll be prompted.

* `[--dry-run]`
  As of `npm@6`, does everything publish would do except actually publishing
  to the registry. Reports the details of what would have been published.

Fails if the package name and version combination already exists in
the specified registry.

Once a package is published with a given name and version, that
specific name and version combination can never be used again, even if
it is removed with [`npm unpublish`](/cli-commands/unpublish).

As of `npm@5`, both a sha1sum and an integrity field with a sha512sum of the
tarball will be submitted to the registry during publication. Subsequent
installs will use the strongest supported algorithm to verify downloads.

Similar to `--dry-run` see [`npm pack`](/cli-commands/pack), which figures out the files to be
included and packs them into a tarball to be uploaded to the registry.

### See Also

* [npm registry](/using-npm/registry)
* [npm scope](/using-npm/scope)
* [npm adduser](/cli-commands/adduser)
* [npm owner](/cli-commands/owner)
* [npm deprecate](/cli-commands/deprecate)
* [npm dist-tag](/cli-commands/dist-tag)
* [npm pack](/cli-commands/pack)
* [npm profile](/cli-commands/profile)
