Scoped registry authentication

Some organizations host their own packages on private package registries that require authentication to access. If you are an employee or customer of one of those organizations, you must configure a scoped registry with npm authentication. To set this up, get an npm authentication token and then add that token to your user configuration file.

1) Fetch the npm authentication token

The process of creating and accessing an npm authentication token is different for each registry provider. For example, JFrog’s Artifactory repository manager uses a different procedure to generate the authentication token from npm. This is an example of a typical procedure, but you need to follow the process recommended by the specific package registry provider for your scoped registry.

To fetch an authentication token from npm:

1. Install npm locally on your computer.

2. From a terminal, enter the following command to log in to the registry:

   $ npm login --registry <registry url>

3. Locate and open the generated .npmrc file.

4. Locate either the _authToken or the _auth entry and copy its value (refer to the example below).

   Depending on the registry, the token string can be either a globally unique identifier (GUID), a token, or a proprietary-formatted string.

Examples of .npmrc files

This is an example of an .npmrc file containing an _authToken attribute:

registry=https://example.com:1234/mylocation/
//example.com:1234/mylocation/:_authToken=<AUTH TOKEN>

This is an example of an .npmrc file containing an_auth attribute:

registry=https://example.com:1234/mylocation
_auth=<AUTH TOKEN>
email=<EMAIL>
always-auth=true

2) Configure authentication information

Store your token information for each scoped registry that requires authentication in the .upmconfig.toml user configuration file using the npmAuth configuration schema. After you save this information to the configuration file, Package Manager will provide your authentication information on every request made to each registry in the file.

Follow these instructions to add your authentication information to the user configuration file:

1. Locate the .upmconfig.toml user configuration file. If the file doesn’t exist, create an empty text file.

2. Format your authentication information using a schema, depending on whether you are using a Bearer (token-based) or Basic (Base64-encrypted) authentication mechanism.

[npmAuth."<REGISTRY URL>"]
<TOKEN-PROPERTY> = "<TOKEN-VALUE>"
email = "<EMAIL>"
alwaysAuth = <BOOLEAN>

The information in the following table explains how to specify the configuration file values:

Entry	Description
[npmAuth."<REGISTRY-URL>"]	Required. URL for the registry. For example, [npmAuth."https://example.com:8081/mylocation"].
<TOKEN-PROPERTY> = "<TOKEN-VALUE>"	Required. The authentication token generated from the npm registry. This can be a GUID, a token, or a proprietary-formatted string. For example, this can be either token = "<AUTH TOKEN>" (Bearer) or _auth = "<BASE64 TOKEN>" (Basic).
email	Optional. Email address for the user matching the user’s email on the registry.
alwaysAuth	Optional. Set to true if the package metadata and tarballs aren’t located on the same server. Typically, you can copy the value from the .npmrc file you generated.

Example using bearer authentication

[npmAuth."http://localhost:8081/myrepository/mylocation"]
token = "NpmToken.2348c7ea-6f86-3dbe-86b6-f257e86569a8"
alwaysAuth = true

[npmAuth."http://localhost:4873"]
token = "eaJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJyZWFsX2dyb3VwcyI6WyJwYXNjYWxsIl0sIm5hbWUiOiJwYXNjYWxsIiwiZ3JvdXBzIjpbIn"

[npmAuth."https://api.bintray.example/npm/mycompany/myregistry"]
token = "aGFzY2FsbDo4ZWIwNTM5NzBjNTI3OTIwYjQ4MDVkYzY2YWEzNmQxOTkyNDYzZjky"
email = "username@example.com"
alwaysAuth = true

Configure basic authentication information

These steps use Azure DevOps as an example, but the process is similar for any platform that uses a personal access token (PAT).

Before you begin, install Node.js if it’s not already installed.

1. Get your Azure DevOps personal access token (PAT), and have it ready for a later step. If you need to regenerate your PAT, log in to Azure DevOps (https://dev.azure.com) and go to User settings > Personal access tokens. For information about using PATs, refer to the Microsoft article, Use personal access tokens.

2. From a command line, run the following command:

   node -e "require('readline').createInterface({input:process.stdin,output:process.stdout,historySize:0}).question('Enter PAT> ',p => {b64=Buffer.from(p.trim()).toString('base64');console.log(b64);process.exit();})"
   

3. At the Enter PAT prompt, type email:PAT, replacing:

   • email with the email associated with your Azure DevOps account and the email specified in the .upmconfig.toml file
   • PAT with your PAT from the earlier step

4. The command returns a Base64-encrypted string. Copy that string and assign it as the value for the _auth key in the .upmconfig.toml file.

Example using basic authentication

[npmAuth."http://localhost:8081/myrepository/mylocation"]
_auth = "c19kaW5pcm9AaG90bWFpbC4jb206d3FzdzVhemU9Q=="
email = "username@example.com"
alwaysAuth = true

Additional resources

• Scoped registries