How to view the dependency tree of a given npm module?

213
votes

How can I get the tree of a module available to npm, but not installed locally ?

npm ll does the job for locally installed packages. But it doesn't work for modules not installed or modules installed globally.

I tried npm list bower but that's not it.

11
npm
If all you're after is a dependency graph, npm.broofa.com and npm.anvaka.com will do this for publicly published modules. – broofa
@broofa thanks for those links ! I suggest you post them as answers. I checked both on @angular/cli and npm.anvaka.com is sluggish and unreadable, but npm.broofa.com does a great job out of it – BiAiB

11 Answers

232
votes

You can generate NPM dependency trees without the need of installing a dependency by using the command

npm list

This will generate a dependency tree for the project at the current directory and print it to the console.

You can get the dependency tree of a specific dependency like so:

npm list [dependency]

You can also set the maximum depth level by doing

npm list --depth=[depth]

Note that you can only view the dependency tree of a dependency that you have installed either globally, or locally to the NPM project.

127
votes

You can use the npm-remote-ls module. You can install it globally:

npm install -g npm-remote-ls

And then call:

npm-remote-ls bower

Alternatively, [email protected] installed then you can use npx and avoid globally installing the command - just call:

npx npm-remote-ls bower
98
votes

This site allows you to view a packages tree as a node graph in 2D or 3D.

http://npm.anvaka.com/#/view/2d/waterline

enter image description here

Great work from @Avanka!

36
votes

Here is the unpowerful official command:

npm view <PACKAGE> dependencies

It prints only the direct dependencies, not the whole tree.

22
votes

You can use howfat which also displays dependency statistics:

npx howfat -r tree jasmine

screensot

17
votes

If you want to get the actually dependency path of specific package and want to know why you have it, you can simply ask yarn why <MODULE>. example:

    $> yarn why mime-db
    yarn why v1.5.1
    [1/4] Why do we have the module "mime-db"...?
    [2/4] Initialising dependency graph...
    [3/4] Finding dependency...
    [4/4] Calculating file sizes...
    => Found "[email protected]"
    info Reasons this module exists
       - "coveralls#request#mime-types" depends on it
       - Hoisted from "coveralls#request#mime-types#mime-db"
    info Disk size without dependencies: "196kB"
    info Disk size with unique dependencies: "196kB"
    info Disk size with transitive dependencies: "196kB"
    info Number of shared dependencies: 0
    Done in 0.65s.
10
votes

View All the metadata about npm module

npm view mongoose(module name)

View All Dependencies of module

npm view mongoose dependencies

View All Version or Versions module

npm view mongoose version
npm view mongoose versions

View All the keywords

npm view mongoose keywords
4
votes

There is also a nice web app to see the dependencies in a weighted map kind of view.

For example:

https://bundlephobia.com/[email protected]

2
votes

If you are using yarn, then you can go with yarn list from the root directory of the project. It'll give you a tree like structure of all the transitive dependencies like below:

├─ @ampproject/[email protected]
│  ├─ [email protected]
│  └─ [email protected]
├─ @ampproject/[email protected]
│  ├─ @ampproject/toolbox-core@^2.6.0
│  ├─ @ampproject/toolbox-runtime-version@^2.7.0-alpha.1
│  ├─ @ampproject/toolbox-script-csp@^2.5.4
│  ├─ @ampproject/toolbox-validator-rules@^2.5.4
│  ├─ [email protected]
│  ├─ [email protected]
│  ├─ [email protected]
│  │  └─ [email protected]
│  ├─ [email protected]
│  │  ├─ caniuse-lite@^1.0.30001093
│  │  ├─ postcss@^7.0.32
│  │  └─ [email protected]
│  │     ├─ chalk@^2.4.2
│  │     ├─ source-map@^0.6.1
│  │     └─ supports-color@^6.1.0
0
votes

Unfortunately npm still doesn't have a way to view dependencies of non-installed packages. Not even a package's page list the dependencies correctly. 🙄

Luckily installing yarn:

brew install yarn

Allows one to use its info command to view accurate dependencies:

yarn info @angular/[email protected] dependencies

yarn info @angular/[email protected] peerDependencies