corepack

Add the Corepack shims to the Node.js installation directory to make them available as global commands

$ corepack enable

$ corepack enable --install-directory [path/to/directory]

$ corepack disable

$ corepack prepare [package_manager]@[version] --activate

$ corepack prepare

$ corepack [npm|pnpm|yarn] [package_manager_arguments]

$ corepack hydrate [path/to/corepack.tgz]

$ corepack [subcommand] --help

corepack enable|disable|prepare|use [manager[@version]] [options]

enable
    Install shims for specified package manager(s); use --all for all supported.

disable
    Remove shims for specified package manager(s); use --all for all.

prepare
    Download, verify, and prepare a package manager binary (--which shows path).

use
    Activate a specific package manager version for the current project.

--install-directory
    Custom directory for shim installation (default: ~/.corepack).

--silent
    Suppress all logging output.

--json
    Format output as JSON.

--config
    Path to corepack configuration file.

--help
    Display help information.

--version
    Print corepack version.

Corepack is a zero-runtime-dependency tool bundled with Node.js starting from version 16.9.0. It serves as a bridge between Node.js projects and package managers like npm, yarn, and pnpm, allowing automatic installation and use of specific package manager versions without global installations or npx.

Corepack downloads and caches binaries on-demand, ensuring reproducible builds across teams and CI/CD pipelines. By specifying a packageManager field in package.json (e.g., "yarn@3.2.0"), projects pin exact versions. Running corepack enable installs executable shims into your PATH (default: ~/.corepack), enabling direct use of yarn, pnpm, etc., with the project's specified version.

Key benefits include eliminating "works on my machine" issues, reducing dependencies, and supporting monorepos. It proxies commands like corepack yarn install even without shims. Corepack verifies checksums for security and supports offline mode after caching.

While powerful, it's opt-in and requires modern Node.js. Disable with corepack disable to revert.

Requires Node.js 16.9.0+; shims may need shell rehash (e.g., hash -r); experimental until Node 16.17.0; caching uses disk space (~100MB per manager).

Use "packageManager": "yarn@3.6.0" or "corepack": { "yarn": "3.6.0" } to pin versions.

corepack yarn@stable install or corepack pnpm@latest add lodash works without enable.

Introduced experimentally in Node.js v16.9.0 (Sep 2021). Stabilized in v16.17.0 (Oct 2022). Expanded support for pnpm in v18+. Default-disabled until manually enabled.

node(1), npm(1), yarn(1), pnpm(1), npx(1)