Package Managers

Vercel will automatically detect the package manager used in your project and install the dependencies when you create a deployment. It does this by looking at the lock file in your project and inferring the correct package manager to use.

If you are using Corepack, Vercel will use the package manager specified in the package.json file instead.

The following table lists the package managers supported by Vercel, with their install commands and versions:

While Vercel automatically selects the package manager based on the lock file present in your project, the specific version of that package manager is determined by the version information in the lock file or associated configuration files.

The npm and pnpm package managers create a lockfileVersion property when they initially generate a lock file. This property specifies the lock file's format version, ensuring proper processing and compatibility. For example, a package-lock.json file with lockfileVersion: 2 will be interpreted by npm 8, while a package-lock.json file with lockfileVersion: 1 will be interpreted by npm 6.

When no lock file exists, Vercel uses Yarn 1 or pnpm 6 from the build container. Npm's version aligns with the Node.js version; for Node 18, it's npm 9. Defaults can be overridden using installCommand or Corepack for specific npm versions.

You can manually specify a package manager to use on a per-project, or per-deployment basis.

To specify a package manager for all deployments in your project, use the Override setting in your project's Build & Development Settings:

1. Navigate to your dashboard and select your project
2. Select the Settings tab
3. From the left navigation, select General
4. Enable the Override toggle in the Build & Development Settings section and add your install command. Once you save, it will be applied on your next deployment

To specify a package manager for a deployment, use the installCommand property in your projects vercel.json.

{
  "installCommand": "pnpm install"
}