pnpm publish

Publishes a package to the registry.

pnpm [-r] publish [<tarball|folder>] [--tag <tag>]
     [--access <public|restricted>] [options]

When publishing a package inside a workspace, the LICENSE file from the root of the workspace is packed with the package (unless the package has a license of its own).

You may override some fields before publish, using the publishConfig field in package.json. You also can use the publishConfig.directory to customize the published subdirectory (usually using third party build tools).

When running this command recursively (pnpm -r publish), pnpm will publish all the packages that have versions not yet published to the registry.

Options#

--recursive, -r#

Publish all packages from the workspace.

--json#

Show information in JSON format.

--tag <tag>#

Publishes the package with the given tag. By default, pnpm publish updates the latest tag.

For example:

# inside the foo package directory
pnpm publish --tag next
# in a project where you want to use the next version of foo
pnpm add foo@next

--access <public|restricted>#

Tells the registry whether the published package should be public or restricted.

--no-git-checks#

Don't check if current branch is your publish branch, clean, and up-to-date with remote.

--publish-branch <branch>#

• Default: master and main
• Types: String

The primary branch of the repository which is used for publishing the latest changes.

--force#

Try to publish packages even if their current version is already found in the registry.

--batch#

Added in: v11.7.0

When publishing recursively (pnpm -r publish), send all selected packages to the registry in a single PUT /-/pnpm/v1/publish request instead of one request per package.

The target registry has to implement the batch publish endpoint (pnpr does); registries that don't are reported with an ERR_PNPM_BATCH_PUBLISH_UNSUPPORTED error. The batch is processed all-or-nothing: if any package in the batch fails validation, none of the packages are published.

Since v11.24.0, the selected packages are grouped by the registry each one publishes to, and one request is sent per group. Every package in a group must authenticate with the same credential — a scope-specific token shared across the group is fine, and mismatched credentials for one registry are rejected before anything is published, rather than after part of the release went out. The publish and postpublish scripts run after each completed group.

--skip-manifest-obfuscation#

Added in: v11.3.0

Keep the original packageManager field and publish lifecycle scripts in the published manifest instead of stripping them. The pnpm-specific pnpm field is still omitted.

--publish-wait-timeout <milliseconds>#

Added in: v12.7.0

• Default: 0
• Type: Number (non-negative integer)

Wait for the exact published version to appear in the registry's install metadata. Then check that a HEAD request to its tarball URL returns HTTP 200. This helps release workflows handle registry delays, such as npm's publish-time malware scanning. A value of 0 disables the check.

pnpm publish --publish-wait-timeout 600000
pnpm -r publish --publish-wait-timeout 600000 --report-summary

The timeout is in milliseconds and includes registry requests and retry delays. Each package has its own timeout, including selected versions that already exist. For a new upload, the timeout starts after the registry accepts it. For an existing version, it starts when pnpm begins its availability check. With --batch, each uploaded registry group shares one timeout.

Recursive publishing also checks selected versions that already exist in the registry. Without --batch, pnpm confirms availability before publishing dependent packages. With --batch, pnpm checks each registry group after its upload. The publish and postpublish scripts run after the corresponding check succeeds.

If confirmation times out, the command fails with ERR_PNPM_PUBLISH_AVAILABILITY_TIMEOUT. The upload remains accepted and may become available later. Do not publish the same version again. Use --report-summary with recursive publishing to record accepted uploads even if the command fails.

Invalid registry responses or non-retryable HTTP errors, such as authentication failures, cause ERR_PNPM_PUBLISH_AVAILABILITY_CHECK_FAILED.

--dry-run skips availability checks. pnpm stage publish ignores the configured default and rejects an explicit positive --publish-wait-timeout, because staged versions cannot be installed. The check does not download the archive or install the package. It does not verify the archive's contents.

Use publishWaitTimeout to set a default.

--report-summary#

Save the list of published packages to pnpm-publish-summary.json. Useful when some other tooling is used to report the list of published packages.

An example of a pnpm-publish-summary.json file:

{
  "publishedPackages": [
    {
      "name": "foo",
      "version": "1.0.0"
    },
    {
      "name": "bar",
      "version": "2.0.0"
    }
  ]
}

When a recursive publish fails after the registry accepted some of the uploads, the summary still lists the packages that were published.

--dry-run#

Does everything a publish would do except actually publishing to the registry.

--otp#

When publishing packages that require two-factor authentication, this option can specify a one-time password.

You can also provide the OTP via the PNPM_CONFIG_OTP environment variable:

export PNPM_CONFIG_OTP='<your OTP here>'
pnpm publish --no-git-checks

If the registry requests OTP and you have not provided it via the environment variable or the --otp flag, pnpm will prompt you directly for an OTP code.

If the registry requests web-based authentication, pnpm will print a scannable QR code along with the URL.

--provenance#

When publishing from a supported cloud CI/CD system, the package will be publicly linked to where it was built and published from.

--filter <package_selector>#

Read more about filtering.

Configuration#

You can also set gitChecks, publishBranch, and publishWaitTimeout options in the pnpm-workspace.yaml file.

For example:

gitChecks: false
publishBranch: production

publishWaitTimeout#

Added in: v12.7.0

• Default: 0
• Type: Number (non-negative integer)

Sets the default timeout in milliseconds for --publish-wait-timeout. Configure it in pnpm-workspace.yaml or the global config.yaml:

publishWaitTimeout: 600000

The PNPM_CONFIG_PUBLISH_WAIT_TIMEOUT environment variable overrides the configuration files. The command-line option takes precedence over both, including --publish-wait-timeout=0 to disable waiting for one command.

Life Cycle Scripts#

• prepublishOnly
• prepublish
• prepack
• prepare
• postpack
• publish
• postpublish