Provided by: npm_6.14.4+ds-1ubuntu2_all 

NAME
npm-ci - Install a project with a clean slate
Synopsis
npm ci
Example
Make sure you have a package-lock and an up-to-date install:
$ cd ./my/npm/project
$ npm install
added 154 packages in 10s
$ ls | grep package-lock
Run npm ci in that project
$ npm ci
added 154 packages in 5s
Configure Travis to build using npm ci instead of npm install:
# .travis.yml
install:
- npm ci
# keep the npm cache around to speed up installs
cache:
directories:
- "$HOME/.npm"
Description
This command is similar to npm help install, except it's meant to be used in automated environments such
as test platforms, continuous integration, and deployment -- or any situation where you want to make sure
you're doing a clean install of your dependencies. It can be significantly faster than a regular npm
install by skipping certain user-oriented features. It is also more strict than a regular install, which
can help catch errors or inconsistencies caused by the incrementally-installed local environments of most
npm users.
In short, the main differences between using npm install and npm ci are:
• The project must have an existing package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json.
• If dependencies in the package lock do not match those in package.json, npm ci will exit with an error,
instead of updating the package lock.
• npm ci can only install entire projects at a time: individual dependencies cannot be added with this
command.
• If a node_modules is already present, it will be automatically removed before npm ci begins its
install.
• It will never write to package.json or any of the package-locks: installs are essentially frozen.
See Also
• npm help install
• npm help package-locks
April 2020 NPM-CI(1)