feat: publish --access=private alias for restricted#9416
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## Summary Adds `private` as a valid value for `--access` in `npm publish`, as an alias for `restricted`. ## Motivation The `--access` flag on `npm publish` currently accepts `restricted` and `public`. However, in everyday usage, the npm community colloquially refers to non-public packages as "private packages" — not "restricted packages." The npm website, the npm registry, and `npm access` all use the term "private" to describe these packages. ### `npm publish --access` vs `npm access` These are two different commands that deal with package visibility in different ways: - **`npm publish --access=<public|restricted>`** sets the visibility of a package **at publish time**. This is only relevant for scoped packages, where the default for new packages is `public`. - **`npm access set status=<public|private>`** changes the visibility of an **already published** package. Notably, `npm access` already uses `private` (not `restricted`) as its term for non-public packages. This inconsistency means that a user who runs `npm access set status=private` might naturally try `npm publish --access=private` and get an error. Since everyone already calls them "private packages," the CLI should accept that term too. This PR resolves that by accepting `private` as a synonym for `restricted` during publish. ## Changes - Added `private` to the valid values for the `access` config definition - The `flatten` function maps `private` → `restricted` so the registry always receives `restricted` - Updated documentation to note that `private` is an alias for `restricted` - Added tests for the `--access=private` flow --------- Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> (cherry picked from commit c9be2d1)
reggi
approved these changes
May 27, 2026
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Backport of #9153 to
release/v11.