Distribution tags (dist-tags) are human-readable labels that you can use to organize and label different versions of packages you publish. dist-tags supplement semantic versioning. In addition to being more human-readable than semantic version numbering, tags allow publishers to distribute their packages more effectively.
For more information, see the dist-tag CLI documentation.
Note: Since dist-tags share a namespace with semantic versions, avoid dist-tags that conflict with existing version numbers. We recommend avoiding dist-tags that start with a number or the letter "v".
Publishing a package with a dist-tag
By default, running npm publish will tag your package with the latest dist-tag. To use another dist-tag, use the --tag flag when publishing.
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On the command line, navigate to the root directory of your package.
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Run the following command, replacing <tag> with the tag you want to use:
Example
To publish a package with the "beta" dist-tag, on the command line, run the following command in the root directory of your package:
Adding a dist-tag to a specific version of your package
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On the command line, navigate to the root directory of your package.
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Run the following command, replacing <package_name> with the name of your package, <version> with your package version number, and <tag> with the distribution tag:
npm dist-tag add <package-name>@<version> [<tag>]
Example
To add the "stable" tag to the 1.4.0 version of the "example-package" package, you would run the following command: