Git package CLI

Useful CLI commands for working with NPM modules which are referenced and packaged as git repositories; especially useful in microfrontend architectures.

Usage

Use this module when:

• You want to track sub-components of your nodejs apps as entirely independent git repositories
• You want to use only NPM as a package manager and avoid other things which complicate setup for developers & end-users
• Your team isn't comfortable with git submodules

Sound good? Read on—

How to use this with your project

These commands can offer a reasonably seamless development experience, provided you follow a few necessary conventions in your setup:

• Sub-components:
  • must have a package.json file in the root of the repository in order to be used directly as an NPM module via git
  • should use the prepare package script to perform any initial compilation or building necessary to import the component
• The "main app" repository:
  • can have its package.json wherever it wants, or be a monorepo with several packages, whatever...
  • should add the directory ./submodules adjacent to any package.json files to .gitignore

That's it! Provided the above are followed, you may then run:

• git-package checkout [moduleId] to clone a working copy of the specified module into the ./submodules folder.
• git-package sync [moduleId] to update package.json to reference the active version of the given module in your working copy. Usually you will want to commit this change to the repo in order to update the dependency for others.

Caveats

• If you use HTTPS URIs to reference git repos in package.json but use SSH to interact with those repositories as a developer, you will need to add your SSH remotes to any managed modules by hand.

License

MIT