Migrate from npm install to bun install
bun install is a fast, Node.js-compatible npm client.
To migrate from npm install to bun install, run bun install instead of npm install.
- Designed for Node.js & Bun:
bun installinstalls a Node.js compatiblenode_modulesfolder. You can use it in place ofnpm installfor Node.js projects without any code changes and without using Bun's runtime. - Automatically converts
package-lock.jsonto Bun'sbun.locklockfile format, preserving your existing resolved dependency versions. You can secretly usebun installin place ofnpm installat work without anyone noticing. .npmrccompatible:bun installreads npm registry configuration from npm's.npmrc, so you can use the same configuration for both npm and Bun.- Hardlinks: On Windows and Linux,
bun installuses hardlinks to save disk space and speed up installs.
# It only takes one command to migrate
$ bun i
# To add dependencies:
$ bun i @types/bun
# To add devDependencies:
$ bun i -d @types/bun
# To remove a dependency:
$ bun rm @types/bunRun package.json scripts faster
Run scripts from package.json, executables from node_modules/.bin (like npx), and JavaScript/TypeScript files (like node), all with a single command.
| NPM | Bun |
|---|---|
npm run <script> | bun <script> |
npm exec <bin> | bun <bin> |
node <file> | bun <file> |
npx <package> | bunx <package> |
bun run <executable> uses the locally-installed executable.
# Run a package.json script:
$ bun my-script
$ bun run my-script
# Run an executable in node_modules/.bin:
$ bun my-executable
# such as tsc, esbuild, etc.
$ bun run my-executable
# Run a JavaScript/TypeScript file:
$ bun ./index.tsWorkspaces? Yes.
bun install supports workspaces similarly to npm, with more features.
In package.json, set "workspaces" to an array of relative paths.
{
"name": "my-app",
"workspaces": ["packages/*", "apps/*"]
}Filter scripts by workspace name
In Bun, the --filter flag accepts a glob pattern and runs the command concurrently for every workspace package whose name matches it, respecting dependency order.
$ bun --filter 'lib-*' my-script
# instead of:
# npm run --workspace lib-foo --workspace lib-bar my-scriptUpdate dependencies
bun update <package> updates a dependency to the latest version that satisfies the semver range in package.json.
# Update a single dependency
$ bun update @types/bun
# Update all dependencies
$ bun update
# Ignore semver, update to the latest version
$ bun update @types/bun --latest
# Update a dependency to a specific version
$ bun update @types/bun@1.3.14
# Update all dependencies to the latest versions
$ bun update --latestView outdated dependencies
To view outdated dependencies, run bun outdated. It works like npm outdated, with more compact output.
$ bun outdated
┌────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────┬────────┬────────┐
│ Package │ Current │ Update │ Latest │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ @types/bun (dev) │ 1.1.6 │ 1.1.10 │ 1.1.10 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ @types/react (dev) │ 18.3.3 │ 18.3.8 │ 18.3.8 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin (dev) │ 7.16.1 │ 7.18.0 │ 8.6.0 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ @typescript-eslint/parser (dev) │ 7.16.1 │ 7.18.0 │ 8.6.0 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ @vscode/debugadapter (dev) │ 1.66.0 │ 1.67.0 │ 1.67.0 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ esbuild (dev) │ 0.21.5 │ 0.21.5 │ 0.24.0 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ eslint (dev) │ 9.7.0 │ 9.11.0 │ 9.11.0 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ mitata (dev) │ 0.1.11 │ 0.1.14 │ 1.0.2 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ prettier-plugin-organize-imports (dev) │ 4.0.0 │ 4.1.0 │ 4.1.0 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ source-map-js (dev) │ 1.2.0 │ 1.2.1 │ 1.2.1 │
├────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼────────┤
│ typescript (dev) │ 5.5.3 │ 5.6.2 │ 5.6.2 │
└────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┴────────┴────────┘List installed packages
bun pm ls lists the packages installed in the node_modules folder, using Bun's lockfile as the source of truth. Pass the -a flag to also list transitive dependencies.
# List top-level installed packages:
$ bun pm ls
my-pkg node_modules (781)
├── @types/node@20.16.5
├── @types/react@18.3.8
├── @types/react-dom@18.3.0
├── eslint@8.57.1
├── eslint-config-next@14.2.8
...# List all installed packages:
$ bun pm ls -a
my-pkg node_modules
├── @alloc/quick-lru@5.2.0
├── @isaacs/cliui@8.0.2
│ └── strip-ansi@7.1.0
│ └── ansi-regex@6.1.0
├── @jridgewell/gen-mapping@0.3.5
├── @jridgewell/resolve-uri@3.1.2
...Create a package tarball
bun pm pack creates a tarball of the package in the current directory.
# Create a tarball
$ bun pm pack
Total files: 46
Shasum: 2ee19b6f0c6b001358449ca0eadead703f326216
Integrity: sha512-ZV0lzWTEkGAMz[...]Gl4f8lA9sl97g==
Unpacked size: 0.41MB
Packed size: 117.50KBShebang
If the package references node in the #!/usr/bin/env node shebang, bun run respects it by default and uses the system's node executable. To force it to use Bun instead, pass --bun to bun run.
When you pass --bun, Bun creates a symlink to the locally-installed Bun executable named "node" in a temporary directory and adds it to your PATH for the duration of the script.
# Force using Bun's runtime instead of node
$ bun --bun my-script
# This also works:
$ bun run --bun my-scriptGlobal installs
Install packages globally with bun i -g <package>. By default, they go into a .bun/install/global/node_modules folder inside your home directory.
# Install a package globally
$ bun i -g eslint
# Run a globally-installed package without the `bun run` prefix
$ eslint --init