How To Setup A Private Npm Proxy Registry And Cache With Docker

How to setup a private package manager

Sharing the code, libraries, or components between the members of a team or between teams sometimes needs to be private and the need of having a private npm registry is a very common thing these days. 

How to set up a private package manager?

There are a couple of solutions, but this article is dedicated to Verdaccio.

Verdaccio is a lightweight open-source private npm proxy registry and cache, that allows you to have your own npm registry for free.

The solution I want to share with you today is based on Verdacio installation with docker-compose.

I have set my private npm registry on Linux CentOS, but it can be set up on Windows or Mac OS

1. Docker Compose file

Let's create a docker-compose file, docker-compose.yml with the following content:

version: '2.1'
services:
  verdaccio:
    image: verdaccio/verdaccio:latest
    restart: always
    container_name: npm-registry
    environment:
      - VERDACCIO_PORT=4873
      - VERDACCIO_PROTOCOL=https
    ports:
      - "4873:4873"
    volumes:
      - "/srv/npm/storage:/verdaccio/storage"
      - "/srv/npm/config:/verdaccio/conf"
      - "/srv/npm/ssl:/verdaccio/ssl"
volumes:
  verdaccio:
    driver: local

In my case I created the folder /srv/npm and subfolders /config, /storage, /ssl.

You might need to change the access permissions to these folders, so let's set it:

chmod -R 0777 /srv/npm

In the /srv/npm/config/config.yml file there some settings I would like to describe because at the moment when I installed my system the info I found was not very clear.

2. Verdaccio settings

If you want to add a logo to the web you can set it in the config file:

web:
  enable: true
  title: NPM Registry - criscond.co.uk
  logo: /verdaccio/conf/logo.png
  primary_color: "#071e33"
  gravatar: true
  scope: "@myScope"
  sort_packages: asc
  sign:
    expiresIn: 1d

if you want to set SSL you have to set in config the path to your SSL certificate and also to copy them to the SSL folder:

https:
    key: /verdaccio/ssl/npm.hostname.com.key
    cert: /verdaccio/ssl/npm.hostname.com.cert
    ca: /verdaccio/ssl/npm.hostname.com.bundle

3. Start the server

Change the working directory where the docker-comopse.yml file is and run the command below:

docker-compose up -d

That is all. Your private npm registry should be up and running.

I have created a repo on GitHub in case you need it and its URL is: https://github.com/criscond/verdaccio-docker

Happy coding!