Get StartedConceptsNamed Registries

Named Registries

A named registry is an alias you assign to a registry URL, so you can refer to it by a short name instead of the full URL.

For example, instead of writing https://registry.example.com/ every time, you can configure an alias:

vlt config set registries=myreg=https://registry.example.com/

Now you can use myreg: as a prefix to explicitly specify that a package should come from that registry:

vlt install myreg:my-package@1.0.0

Or in package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "my-package": "myreg:my-package@1.0.0"
  }
}

Why use named registries?

Multi-registry workflows — Configure different registries for different scopes or purposes (e.g., npm: for public packages, internal: for private company packages)
Explicit resolution — Ensure a specific package comes from a specific registry, avoiding ambiguity
Portability — Share configuration via vlt.json so team members use the same registry aliases

vlt provides these built-in registry aliases:

Alias	Registry	Notes
`npm:`	Configurable (no default)	Default for bare specs; must be configured
`jsr:`	`https://npm.jsr.io/`	JavaScript Registry
`gh:`	`https://npm.pkg.github.com/`	GitHub Packages