Von npm zu pnpm migrieren

Compatibility

pnpm installs from the same package.json, but it does not read npm’s lockfile. package-lock.json and npm-shrinkwrap.json are ignored: npm can install the same name@version several times with different dependencies, and its lockfile describes a flat node_modules, which pnpm’s isolated layout cannot follow.

To keep the versions you have resolved today, pnpm import generates a pnpm-lock.yaml from another package manager’s lockfile. It accepts package-lock.json, npm-shrinkwrap.json and yarn.lock.

Before you switch

1. Declare workspaces first. If the project has workspaces whose dependencies you want imported, list them in a pnpm-workspace.yaml file before running the import.
2. Convert the lockfile. Run pnpm import next to your existing package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json.

The official page stops at the lockfile. It does not say what to do with the npm lockfile afterwards, or how to change CI and scripts that call npm.

Pitfalls

• The node_modules layout changes. npm hoists every package to the root of node_modules, so source code can reach dependencies the project never declared. pnpm puts only the project’s direct dependencies at the root, as symlinks.
• If your tooling does not work well with symlinks, set the nodeLinker setting to hoisted. pnpm then creates a node_modules similar to npm’s.
• Files in node_modules/.bin are always shell files, never symlinks to JS files. If something expects a JS file there, reference the original file directly.