Not all NPM scripts are executed during deployment

According to the NPM docs prepublish script should be executed on local npm install without any arguments. It seems that on Now it is not the case.

I depend on this to compile my sources (e.g. coffee, elm -> js).

Consider this sample package to test scripts execution. This is the output on my local machine:

$ npm install

> npm-scripts@1.0.0 preinstall /Users/tadeuszlazurski/Projects/npm-scripts
> echo 'NPM SCRIPT: preinstall'

NPM SCRIPT: preinstall
|
> npm-scripts@1.0.0 install /Users/tadeuszlazurski/Projects/npm-scripts
> echo 'NPM SCRIPT: install'

NPM SCRIPT: install

> npm-scripts@1.0.0 postinstall /Users/tadeuszlazurski/Projects/npm-scripts
> echo 'NPM SCRIPT: postinstall'

NPM SCRIPT: postinstall

> npm-scripts@1.0.0 prepublish /Users/tadeuszlazurski/Projects/npm-scripts
> echo 'NPM SCRIPT: prepublish'

NPM SCRIPT: prepublish
coffee-script@1.10.0 node_modules/coffee-script

lodash@3.10.1 node_modules/lodash

and this is output from now:

 $ now
> Deploying ~/Projects/npm-scripts
> Using Node.js 6.2.1 (default)
> Ready! https://npm-scripts-izbtgitqee.now.sh (copied to clipboard) [3s]
> Upload [====================] 100% 0.0s
> Sync complete (25.9kB) [3s]
> Initializing…
> Building
> ▲ npm install
> Installing package lodash@^3.10.1
> Installing package coffee-script@^1.9.3
> ▲ npm start
> NPM SCRIPT: prestart
> NPM SCRIPT: start
> NPM SCRIPT: poststart
> start exited with status 0

As you can see none of the following scripts:

• preinstall
• install
• postinstall
• prepublish

was executed in Now.

@lzrski

[addyosmani]

I unfortunately ran into this problem today. None of the preinstall and postinstall scripts I had in my package were being successfully run using Now during deployment.

[tad-lispy]

The workaround is to deploy a Docker image that contains your Node app.