docs: clarify .npmrc naming convention for environment variable overrides#8752
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owlstronaut merged 1 commit intonpm:latestfrom Nov 25, 2025
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Description
Adds important documentation clarifying that custom configuration keys in .npmrc files should use hyphens instead of underscores to ensure they can be overridden by environment variables.
Changes
Fixes
Closes #6036
Rationale
Users were confused because environment variables use underscores (npm_config_some_thing) but if you define 'some_thing' in .npmrc, it can't be overridden. This happens because npm converts underscores to hyphens when reading env vars, so the env var becomes 'some-thing' but the .npmrc key remains 'some_thing'. By using hyphens in .npmrc files, both will resolve to the same key.
Type of Change