Why is my /dist directory missing from my package?

It was rather puzzling that the only directory that really matters, the /dist folder, wasn't included in the final npm package.

I know about the files property in the package.json but I really wanted everything included in the package. Omitting the files property is supposed to include all files, but that just wasn't happening.

.gitignore?

Turns out that if there is no files property it will look to the .gitignore file and not include any files that are ignored there. Of course the /dist folder is ignored, I don't want to commit bundled files in my repo, only in the final package.

However, there is another option. If you include a .npmignore file, that will supersede the .gitignore file.

Creating the .npmignore file did the job. I added a few things that weren't really necessary in the npm package such as the .storybook and .vscode folders.

In the end I finally have a package with the bundled files I need.

Chat with ChatGPT

I was curious why the .gitignore file was used for this purpose. Most times you're going to want bundled build artifacts to only be included in your package and not in your repo. Using the .gitignore to exclude files for your package.json seems counterintuitive.

I wasn't totally satisfied with the ChatGPT response but it did give a little context that is helpful. I'd love to see an actual example of when .gitignore makes sense for this purpose, but on the other hand, I don't care enough to spend any more time on it.

This prompt is after a couple other questions to help define the problem, so it may seem like jumping into the middle of a conversation.

Prompt: That seems silly to use the .gitignore file. Most times the .gitignore file is to exclude files that you want specifically to be in your package. Why is the .gitignore used for this purpose?

Response: It's true that using the .gitignore file to exclude files from your package can seem counterintuitive, since the purpose of the .gitignore file is typically to exclude files from version control.

However, npm was designed to work closely with git, and by default, it will use your .gitignore file to determine which files to exclude from your package. The reason for this is that there is often significant overlap between the files that you want to exclude from version control and the files that you want to exclude from your package. For example, you might want to exclude configuration files or build artifacts from both version control and your package.

Using the .gitignore file for this purpose also has the advantage of allowing you to easily manage the list of excluded files in a single place. Instead of having to maintain a separate .npmignore file, you can simply add files to your .gitignore file as needed.

That being said, if you have files that you want to include in your package that are excluded by your .gitignore file, you can always create a separate .npmignore file to override the default behavior. This can be useful if you have files that are excluded from version control but that you still want to include in your package. Just remember that if you do create an .npmignore file, it will take precedence over your .gitignore file.