Migrating to vlt

Migrating to vlt from Other Package Managers

This section covers how to switch from npm, yarn, or pnpm to vlt. Each guide walks through the concrete steps: configuration, commands, lockfiles, workspaces, and the key differences to be aware of.

Choose Your Migration Path

• From npm — Migrate from npm to vlt
• From yarn — Migrate from yarn (v1 classic or v2+ berry) to vlt
• From pnpm — Migrate from pnpm to vlt

What Changes

Regardless of which package manager you're coming from, the core changes are:

1. Configuration moves to vlt.json — A single JSON file replaces .npmrc, .yarnrc.yml, or .npmrc + pnpm-workspace.yaml
2. Lockfile format changes — vlt uses vlt-lock.json instead of package-lock.json, yarn.lock, or pnpm-lock.yaml
3. Install scripts don't run by default — vlt separates installation from build. vlt install downloads packages without executing any lifecycle scripts. Use vlt build to selectively run scripts afterward
4. Security is built in — vlt integrates with Socket for malware detection, and the query system lets you audit your dependency graph before any code runs

What Stays the Same

• Your package.json files don't change (dependencies, scripts, etc.)
• node_modules structure is compatible — your code runs the same way
• Registry authentication uses tokens, just stored differently
• Workspace packages still use workspace: protocol references