Skip to main content
Whether you are using bun, pnpm, npm or yarn, most Node.js and Bun applications depend on npm modules, and record their dependencies in a package.json file. If you are running a Deno app, this page does not apply, instead refer to Run a Deno App for more information.

​
Missing dependencies

If your application works locally but doesn’t work when deployed this may be due to dependencies which are installed globally rather than being enumerated in the package.json file. In order to deploy an application, it needs to be self-contained. You can resolve this by adding the dependency to your package.json, typically by using a command such as yarn add or npm install.

​
Mis-categorized dependencies

Many package.json files have two lists of dependencies: dependencies and devDependencies. devDependencies are intended to list dependencies which are only needed at build time and not when deployed. Sometimes dependencies are miscategorized, for example a database tool needed to perform migration may be listed as a devDependency despite the fact that such a tool is needed to deploy. It is generally best to correct these errors by moving the dependency to the right place in the package.json. An alternative when this isn’t feasible or desired is to regenerate the dockerfile to include all dependencies at deployment:

​
Legacy peer dependencies

Some package.json files have a third set of dependencies peerDependencies. As tooling support for this varies, this information can become stale and out of sync, causing builds to fail. While correcting these dependencies may work for a while, often times it becomes necessary to indicate that these dependencies are legacy. The way to do this varies based on the package manager, and dockerfile-node can take care of this for you:

​
Native modules

Some npm modules are native modules which may require additional libraries to be installed, either at build time, or at deploy time, or both.
If you find yourself needing to do this, and your need is a consequence of using a native module, please open an issue so that other users with the same dependency can have this taken care of for them automatically.