Current File : //usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/docs/content/commands/npm-explain.md
---
title: npm-explain
section: 1
description: Explain installed packages
---
### Synopsis
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```bash
npm explain <folder | specifier>
alias: why
```
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### Description
This command will print the chain of dependencies causing a given package
to be installed in the current project.
Positional arguments can be either folders within `node_modules`, or
`name@version-range` specifiers, which will select the dependency
relationships to explain.
For example, running `npm explain glob` within npm's source tree will show:
```bash
glob@7.1.6
node_modules/glob
glob@"^7.1.4" from the root project
glob@7.1.1 dev
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/glob
glob@"^7.0.5" from rimraf@2.6.2
node_modules/tacks/node_modules/rimraf
rimraf@"^2.6.2" from tacks@1.3.0
node_modules/tacks
dev tacks@"^1.3.0" from the root project
```
To explain just the package residing at a specific folder, pass that as the
argument to the command. This can be useful when trying to figure out
exactly why a given dependency is being duplicated to satisfy conflicting
version requirements within the project.
```bash
$ npm explain node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@3.0.0 dev
node_modules/nyc/node_modules/find-up
find-up@"^3.0.0" from nyc@14.1.1
node_modules/nyc
nyc@"^14.1.1" from tap@14.10.8
node_modules/tap
dev tap@"^14.10.8" from the root project
```
### Configuration
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#### `json`
* Default: false
* Type: Boolean
Whether or not to output JSON data, rather than the normal output.
* In `npm pkg set` it enables parsing set values with JSON.parse() before
saving them to your `package.json`.
Not supported by all npm commands.
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#### `workspace`
* Default:
* Type: String (can be set multiple times)
Enable running a command in the context of the configured workspaces of the
current project while filtering by running only the workspaces defined by
this configuration option.
Valid values for the `workspace` config are either:
* Workspace names
* Path to a workspace directory
* Path to a parent workspace directory (will result in selecting all
workspaces within that folder)
When set for the `npm init` command, this may be set to the folder of a
workspace which does not yet exist, to create the folder and set it up as a
brand new workspace within the project.
This value is not exported to the environment for child processes.
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### See Also
* [npm config](/commands/npm-config)
* [npmrc](/configuring-npm/npmrc)
* [npm folders](/configuring-npm/folders)
* [npm ls](/commands/npm-ls)
* [npm install](/commands/npm-install)
* [npm link](/commands/npm-link)
* [npm prune](/commands/npm-prune)
* [npm outdated](/commands/npm-outdated)
* [npm update](/commands/npm-update)
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