---
title: Config
section: 7
description: About npm configuration
---

### Description

This article details npm configuration in general.
To learn about the `config` command, see [`npm config`](/commands/npm-config).

npm gets its configuration values from the following sources, sorted by priority:

#### Command Line Flags

Putting `--foo bar` on the command line sets the `foo` configuration parameter to `"bar"`.
A `--` argument tells the cli parser to stop reading flags.
Using `--flag` without specifying any value will set the value to `true`.

Example: `--flag1 --flag2` will set both configuration parameters to `true`, while `--flag1 --flag2 bar` will set `flag1` to `true`, and `flag2` to `bar`.
Finally, `--flag1 --flag2 -- bar` will set both configuration parameters to `true`, and the `bar` is taken as a command argument.

**Common examples:**

* `npm install --prefix /path/to/dir` - Runs npm commands in a different directory without changing the current working directory
* `npm install --global` - Installs packages globally (shorthand: `-g`)
* `npm install --save-dev` - Saves to devDependencies (shorthand: `-D`)

Any configuration option documented in the [Config Settings](#config-settings) section below can be set via command line flags using `--option-name value` syntax.

#### Environment Variables

Any environment variables that start with `npm_config_` will be interpreted as a configuration parameter.
For example, putting `npm_config_foo=bar` in your environment will set the `foo` configuration parameter to `bar`.
Any environment configurations that are not given a value will be given the value of `true`.
Config values are case-insensitive, so `NPM_CONFIG_FOO=bar` will work the same.
However, please note that inside [`scripts`](/using-npm/scripts) npm will set its own environment variables and Node will prefer those lowercase versions over any uppercase ones that you might set.
For details see [this issue](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/14528).

Notice that you need to use underscores instead of dashes, so `--allow-same-version` would become `npm_config_allow_same_version=true`.

**Important:** When defining custom configuration keys in `.npmrc` files, use hyphens instead of underscores (e.g., `custom-key=value`). This ensures they can be overridden by environment variables, since npm automatically converts underscores to hyphens when reading environment variables. Keys with underscores in `.npmrc` files cannot be overridden via environment variables.

#### npmrc Files

The four relevant files are:

* per-project configuration file (`/path/to/my/project/.npmrc`)
* per-user configuration file (defaults to `$HOME/.npmrc`; configurable via CLI option `--userconfig` or environment variable `$NPM_CONFIG_USERCONFIG`)
* global configuration file (defaults to `$PREFIX/etc/npmrc`; configurable via CLI option `--globalconfig` or environment variable `$NPM_CONFIG_GLOBALCONFIG`)
* npm's built-in configuration file (`/path/to/npm/npmrc`)

See [npmrc](/configuring-npm/npmrc) for more details.

#### Default Configs

Run `npm config ls -l` to see a set of configuration parameters that are internal to npm, and are defaults if nothing else is specified.

### Shorthands and Other CLI Niceties

The following shorthands are parsed on the command-line:

<!-- AUTOGENERATED CONFIG SHORTHANDS -->

If the specified configuration param resolves unambiguously to a known configuration parameter, then it is expanded to that configuration parameter.
For example:

```bash
npm ls --par
# same as:
npm ls --parseable
```

If multiple single-character shorthands are strung together, and the resulting combination is unambiguously not some other configuration param, then it is expanded to its various component pieces.
For example:

```bash
npm ls -gpld
# same as:
npm ls --global --parseable --long --loglevel info
```

### Config Settings

<!-- AUTOGENERATED CONFIG DESCRIPTIONS -->

### See also

* [npm config](/commands/npm-config)
* [npmrc](/configuring-npm/npmrc)
* [npm scripts](/using-npm/scripts)
* [npm folders](/configuring-npm/folders)
* [npm](/commands/npm)
