npm inc. is a company founded in 2014, and was acquired by GitHub in 2020. npm continues to be the world's largest software registry. Open source developers from every continent use npm to share and borrow packages, and many organizations use npm to manage private development as well.
npm consists of three distinct components:
- a website
- a registry
- a command line interface (CLI)
Use the website to discover packages, set up profiles, and manage other aspects of your npm experience. For example, you can set up organizations to manage access to public or private packages.
The registry is a large public database of JavaScript software and the meta-information surrounding it.
The CLI runs from a terminal, and is how most developers interact with npm.