The package.json file is at the heart of almost all our applications and it can sure be a beast to tame. It contains a lot of meta data about our application but one thing that is particular interesting and useful is the scripts -node.

The scripts defined in there are availble for us to run using npm run {name of script}. For example: npm run test runs the script defined in package.json => scripts => test-node. You have already used it many times already, to run tests, start application etc.

If you are anything like me you might forget what these scripts are named. I wanted to share two handy tips that will help you see that.

1) in the root of the project (where the package.json-file is located) go npm run. This will just list all the scripts that are defined in the file and will be a handy reminder, without having to open and parse the file itself.

2) A more interactive alternative is to use ntl (https://www.npmjs.com/package/ntl). Install it globally on your computer with npm install -g ntl. When that is done you can just go ntl in any folder with a package.json and it will show you a nice little wizard to select command from.

› ntl
✔  Npm Task List - v3.0.0
? Select a task to run: 
  start-production 
  _start 
❯ start 
  restart 
  lint 
  test 
  watch 
(Move up and down to reveal more choices)