npm login: Usage, Options & Common CI Errors

Authenticate to an npm registry.

npm login (alias npm adduser) authenticates you to a registry and stores the auth token in .npmrc. It is interactive, so CI uses a pre-provisioned token instead.

What it does

Prompts for credentials (or opens a browser for the web login flow) and writes an auth token to your user .npmrc for the configured registry. --scope and --registry target a specific scope or private registry.

Common usage

Terminal

npm login                                   # default registry
npm login --scope=@acme --registry=https://npm.acme.dev
npm whoami                                  # confirm who you are

Common CI error: npm login hangs

A CI job calling npm login blocks forever on the interactive prompt. Do not run npm login in CI - write an automation token straight into .npmrc so npm publish/install authenticates without prompting.

.github/workflows/release.yml

echo "//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=${NPM_TOKEN}" > ~/.npmrc
npm whoami                                  # verify auth

Related guides

npm whoami: Usage & Common CI Errorsnpm whoami prints the username for your current registry token - the fastest auth smoke test in release CI. U… npm E401 / ENEEDAUTH - Fix Registry Auth and .npmrc Token in CIFix npm E401 "Incorrect or missing auth token" and ENEEDAUTH in CI - a private registry rejecting the request… npm publish: Usage, Options & Common ErrorsHow npm publish ships a package to the registry, scoped/access flags, and the E403/E409 auth and version-exis…