Publishing Scoped npm Packages with semantic-release

Scoped Package Publishing

Scoped npm packages (e.g., @myorg/my-package) require specific configuration to publish correctly, especially regarding access levels.

Configuration

{
  "branches": ["main"],
  "plugins": [
    "@semantic-release/commit-analyzer",
    "@semantic-release/release-notes-generator",
    ["@semantic-release/npm", {
      "npmPublish": true,
      "pkgRoot": "."
    }],
    "@semantic-release/github"
  ]
}

package.json Requirements

Your package.json must include the publishConfig field for scoped packages:

{
  "name": "@myorg/my-package",
  "publishConfig": {
    "access": "public"
  }
}

Without "access": "public", npm defaults to restricted (private) for scoped packages, which requires a paid npm organization.

Custom Registry

To publish to a private registry (like GitHub Packages or Artifactory):

{
  "name": "@myorg/my-package",
  "publishConfig": {
    "registry": "https://npm.pkg.github.com"
  }
}

.npmrc Configuration

For CI environments, create an .npmrc file:

@myorg:registry=https://npm.pkg.github.com
//npm.pkg.github.com/:_authToken=${NODE_AUTH_TOKEN}

Multiple Registries

To publish to both npm and GitHub Packages, use the exec plugin to run a second publish command after the npm plugin handles the primary registry.