# Install NPM Dependency From GitHub URL

> How to set up an NPM dependency from a GitHub URL in a package.json for SSH and HTTPS.

Source: https://curiouslychase.com/engineering/install-npm-dependency-from-github-url/

When working with [JavaScript](https://curiouslychase.com/posts/javascript/), I often find myself wanting to use changes that I've made for an NPM (NodeJS) dependency in a personal fork. 

NPM (and yarn) have a useful convention for pointing to a [git](https://curiouslychase.com/engineering/git/) repository instead in a project's `package.json` `dependencies` by pointing to the fork and optionally using a specific branch instead of giving it a version number.

Here's how to set that up in a `package.json` for SSH and HTTPS. This example uses the `isomorphic-fetch` package.

Convention for a basic configuration for a package using git:

```plaintext
git+{protocol}://{user}@{hostname}:{project owner}/{project}.git#{branch name}
```

- protocol can be `ssh` or `https`.
- user and hostname for logging in via `git`. Usually the user is `git`, especially for github.com and gitlab.com
- project owner is either an organization or user
- project is the repo
- branch name (optional) is the branch you want to work off of

# Install NPM dependency from GitHub via SSH

Following the example, a basic version composition for SSH looks like this:

```plaintext
git+ssh://git@github.com:matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch.git
```

By branch:

```plaintext
git+ssh://git@github.com:matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch.git#some-branch
```

# Install NPM dependency from GitHub via HTTPS

Following the example, a basic version composition for HTTPS looks like this:

```plaintext
git+https://git@github.com:matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch.git
```

By branch:

```plaintext
git+https://git@github.com:matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch.git#some-branch
```

# Example in the package.json

This is what the JSON would look like for `dependencies` in `package.json`:

```json
{
    "dependencies": {
        "isomorphic-fetch": "git@github.com:matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch.git"
    }
}
```