NPM-LOGIN(1) NPM-LOGIN(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

**npm-login** - Login to a registry user account

## [Synopsis](#Synopsis)

```
npm login
```

Note: This command is unaware of workspaces.

## [Description](#Description)

Verify a user in the specified registry, and save the credentials to the **.npmrc** file. If no registry is specified, the default registry will be used (see npm help config).

When you run **npm login**, the CLI automatically generates a legacy token of **publish** type. For more information, see **About legacy tokens** *⟨/about-access-tokens#about-legacy-tokens⟩*.

When using **legacy** for your **auth-type**, the username and password, are read in from prompts.

To reset your password, go to *⟨https://www.npmjs.com/forgot⟩*

To change your email address, go to *⟨https://www.npmjs.com/email-edit⟩*

You may use this command multiple times with the same user account to authorize on a new machine. When authenticating on a new machine, the username, password and email address must all match with your existing record.

## [Configuration](#Configuration)

## **registry**

- Default: "https://registry.npmjs.org/"
- Type: URL

The base URL of the npm registry.

## **scope**

- Default: the scope of the current project, if any, or ""
- Type: String

Associate an operation with a scope for a scoped registry.

Useful when logging in to or out of a private registry:

```
# log in, linking the scope to the custom registry
npm login --scope=@mycorp --registry=https://registry.mycorp.com
# log out, removing the link and the auth token
npm logout --scope=@mycorp
```

This will cause **@mycorp** to be mapped to the registry for future installation of packages specified according to the pattern **@mycorp/package**.

This will also cause **npm init** to create a scoped package.

```
# accept all defaults, and create a package named "@foo/whatever",
# instead of just named "whatever"
npm init --scope=@foo --yes
```

## **auth-type**

- Default: "web"
- Type: "legacy" or "web"

What authentication strategy to use with **login**. Note that if an **otp** config is given, this value will always be set to **legacy**.

## [See Also](#See_Also)

- npm help registry
- npm help config
- npm help npmrc
- npm help owner
- npm help whoami
- npm help token
- npm help profile

October 2026 NPM@12.2.1

---

Document: npm-login(1) from npm-12 12.2.1-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/npm/cli