clean-pkg-json

name	clean-pkg-json
description	Cleans package.json for npm publishing using an allowlist approach — preserves only consumer-relevant properties. Use when setting up prepack hooks, configuring npm publish workflows, or working with clean-pkg-json flags.

clean-pkg-json

Publishes only consumer-relevant package.json properties using an allowlist.

Setup

{
    "scripts": {
        "prepack": "clean-pkg-json"
    }
}

When chaining with other prepack commands:

{
    "scripts": {
        "prepack": "pnpm build && clean-pkg-json"
    }
}

Flags

Flag	Description	Example
-k, --keep	Preserve additional properties	clean-pkg-json -k eslintConfig,devDependencies
-r, --remove	Drop default-kept properties	clean-pkg-json -r scripts.postinstall
-d, --dry	Preview result without writing to disk	clean-pkg-json --dry
-v, --verbose	Log details about which properties are preserved	clean-pkg-json --verbose

Both --keep and --remove accept multiple flags (-k foo -k bar) or comma-delimited lists (-k foo,bar).

Use --dry to preview changes before writing.

npm pack --dry-run and npm publish --dry-run are also auto-detected (via npm_config_dry_run) — no write happens when npm itself is in dry-run mode.

Behavior

The tool reads ./package.json in the current directory, keeps only allowlisted properties, and writes the result back in place.

Scripts Handling

Scripts use dot-notation in the allowlist. Only install hooks are preserved by default:

• scripts.preinstall
• scripts.install
• scripts.postinstall
• scripts.dependencies

To preserve additional scripts:

clean-pkg-json --keep scripts.prepare

If no scripts remain after filtering, the scripts key itself is omitted.

Default Allowlist

Category	Properties
npm required	name, version, private, publishConfig
Entry points	main, bin, browser, man, files
Dependencies	dependencies, peerDependencies, peerDependenciesMeta, bundledDependencies, optionalDependencies
Node.js ESM	type, exports, imports
Environment	engines, os, cpu
Metadata	description, keywords, author, maintainers, contributors, license, homepage, repository, bugs, funding
TypeScript	types, typings, typesVersions
Bundlers	module, sideEffects
CDNs	jsdelivr, unpkg
VSCode extensions	sponsor, publisher, displayName, categories, galleryBanner, preview, contributes, activationEvents, badges, markdown, qna, extensionPack, extensionDependencies, extensionKind, icon
Angular	fesm2022, fesm2020, fesm2015, esm2020, es2020