verdaccio/website/versioned_docs/version-6.x/packages.md

---
id: packages
title: 'Package Access'
---

This is a series of constraints that allow or restrict access to the local storage based on specific criteria.

The security constraints remain on the shoulders of the plugin being used, by default `verdaccio` uses the [htpasswd plugin](https://github.com/verdaccio/verdaccio-htpasswd). If you use a different plugin the behaviour might be different. The default plugin does not handle `allow_access` and `allow_publish` by itself, it uses an internal fallback in case the plugin is not ready for it.

For more information about permissions visit [the authentification section in the wiki](auth.md).

### Usage {#usage}

```yaml
packages:
  # scoped packages
  '@scope/*':
    access: $all
    publish: $all
    proxy: server2

  'private-*':
    access: $all
    publish: $all
    proxy: uplink1

  '**':
    # allow all users (including non-authenticated users) to read and
    # publish all packages
    access: $all
    publish: $all
    proxy: uplink2
```

if none is specified, the default one remains

```yaml
packages:
  '**':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
```

The list internal groups handled by `verdaccio` are:

```js
'$all', '$anonymous', '@all', '@anonymous', 'all', 'undefined', 'anonymous';
```

All users receive all those set of permissions independently of is anonymous or not plus the groups provided by the plugin, in case of `htpasswd` return the username as a group. For instance, if you are logged as `npmUser` the list of groups will be.

```js
// groups without '$' are going to be deprecated eventually
'$all', '$anonymous', '@all', '@anonymous', 'all', 'undefined', 'anonymous', 'npmUser';
```

If you want to protect specific set packages under your group, you need to do something like this. Let's use a `Regex` that covers all prefixed `npmuser-` packages. We recommend using a prefix for your packages, in that way it will be easier to protect them.

```yaml
packages:
  'npmuser-*':
    access: npmuser
    publish: npmuser
```

Restart `verdaccio` and in your console try to install `npmuser-core`.

```bash
$ npm install npmuser-core
npm install npmuser-core
npm ERR! code E403
npm ERR! 403 Forbidden: npmuser-core@latest

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/user/.npm/_logs/2017-07-02T12_20_14_834Z-debug.log
```

You can change the existing behaviour using a different plugin authentication. `verdaccio` just checks whether the user that tried to access or publish a specific package belongs to the right group.

Note: Since npm 7.10, the config option `always-auth` has no effect. You can safely remove it from your configuration.

#### Set multiple groups {#set-multiple-groups}

Defining multiple access groups is fairly easy, just define them with a white space between them.

```yaml
'company-*':
  access: admin internal
  publish: admin
  proxy: server1
'supersecret-*':
  access: secret super-secret-area ultra-secret-area
  publish: secret ultra-secret-area
  proxy: server1
```

#### Blocking access to set of packages {#blocking-access-to-set-of-packages}

If you want to block the access/publish to a specific group of packages. Just do not define `access` and `publish`.

```yaml
packages:
  'old-*':
  '**':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
```

#### Blocking proxying a set of specific packages {#blocking-proxying-a-set-of-specific-packages}

You might want to block one or several packages from fetching from remote repositories., but, at the same time, allow others to access different _uplinks_.

Let's see the following example:

```yaml
packages:
  'jquery':
    access: $all
    publish: $all
  'my-company-*':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
  '@my-local-scope/*':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
  '**':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
    proxy: npmjs
```

Let's describe what we want with the above example:

- I want to host my own `jquery` dependency but I need to avoid proxying it.
- I want all dependencies that match with `my-company-*` but I need to avoid proxying them.
- I want all dependencies that are in the `my-local-scope` scope but I need to avoid proxying them.
- I want proxying for all the rest of the dependencies.

Be **aware that the order of your packages definitions is important and always use double wilcard**. Because if you do not include it `verdaccio` will include it for you and the way that your dependencies are resolved will be affected.

#### Use multiple uplinks {#use-multiple-uplinks}

You may assign multiple uplinks for use as a proxy to use in the case of failover, or where there may be other private registries in use.

```yaml
'**':
  access: $all
  publish: $authenticated
  proxy: npmjs uplink2
```

#### Unpublishing Packages {#unpublishing-packages}

The property `publish` handle permissions for `npm publish` and `npm unpublish`. But, if you want to be more specific, you can use the property
`unpublish` in your package access section, for instance:

```yaml
packages:
  'jquery':
    access: $all
    publish: $all
    unpublish: root
  'my-company-*':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
    unpublish:
  '@my-local-scope/*':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
    # unpublish: property commented out
  '**':
    access: $all
    publish: $authenticated
    proxy: npmjs
```

In the previous example, the behaviour would be described:

- all users can publish the `jquery` package, but only the user `root` would be able to unpublish any version.
- only authenticated users can publish `my-company-*` packages, but **nobody would be allowed to unpublish them**.
- If `unpublish` is commented out, the access will be granted or denied by the `publish` definition.

### Configuration {#configuration}

You can define mutiple `packages` and each of them must have an unique `Regex`. The syntax is based on [minimatch glob expressions](https://github.com/isaacs/minimatch).

| Property | Type   | Required | Example        | Support        | Description                                                               |
| -------- | ------ | -------- | -------------- | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| access   | string | No       | $all           | all            | define groups allowed to access the package                               |
| publish  | string | No       | $authenticated | all            | define groups allowed to publish                                          |
| proxy    | string | No       | npmjs          | all            | limit look ups for specific uplink                                        |
| storage  | string | No       | string         | `/some-folder` | it creates a subfolder whithin the storage folder for each package access |

> We higlight that we recommend to not use **allow_access**/**allow_publish** and **proxy_access** anymore, those are deprecated and will soon be removed, please use the short version of each of those (**access**/**publish**/**proxy**).

If you want more information about how to use the **storage** property, please refer to this [comment](https://github.com/verdaccio/verdaccio/issues/1383#issuecomment-509933674).