Handling dependencies

If you are deploying through gcloud, Cloud Functions downloads dependencies declared in package.json using npm. You can also prepackage fully materialized dependencies alongside your function. By default, node_modules is added to .gcloudignore and is not uploaded as part of your deployment.

If you are deploying through the Firebase CLI, the local node_modules folder is ignored, and you must specify your dependencies in package.json. You can learn more about the package.json file from the npm docs.

In this example, a dependency is listed in the package.json file:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "uuid": "^3.0.1"
  }
}

The dependency is then imported in the function:

const uuid = require('uuid');

// Return a newly generated UUID in the HTTP response.
exports.getUuid = functions.https.onRequest((req, res) => {
  res.send(uuid.v4());
});

import * as uuid from 'uuid';

// Return a newly generated UUID in the HTTP response.
export let getUuid = functions.https.onRequest((req, res) => {
  res.send(uuid.v4());
}

Using npm to install Node.js modules

The easiest way to install a Node.js module is to use the npm install command in the folder containing your Cloud Function. For instance, the following command adds the uuid module:

npm install uuid

This combines two steps:

1. It marks the latest version of the module as a dependency in your package.json file. This is very important: Cloud Functions only installs modules that are declared in your package.json file.
2. It downloads the module into your node_modules directory. This lets you use the module when developing locally.

Additional steps for TypeScript

TypeScript helps you most when you use libraries that have type information. This lets TypeScript catch syntax errors and lets editors give you better autocomplete suggestions. Some libraries, like firebase-admin and firebase-functions, ship with TypeScript definitions included.

Many libraries do not provide their own TypeScript definition. The DefinitelyTyped project provides community-maintained definitions for the most popular node libraries. DefinitelyTyped publishes these definitions under the same NPM package name, but inside the "@types" organization. For example, you can install the type information for the uuid library with the following:

npm install @types/uuid

As you become more familiar with TypeScript, you might find yourself combining both installs:

npm install uuid @types/uuid

Type dependencies should be the same kind as the library dependency. For example, you should not save uuid as a normal dependency and @types/uuid as a dev dependency or peer dependency.

Loading Node.js modules

Just as you can depend on third-party libraries like the uuid module, you can use require (JavaScript) to load any Node.js module you have installed. The require function takes the name of the Node.js module and returns that module's exports object.

Using private modules

In order to use a private npm module, you must provide credentials (auth token) for the npm registry in a .npmrc file located in the function's directory. The npm documentation explains how to create custom read-only access tokens. We discourage using the .npmrc file created in the home directory because it contains a read-write token. Write permissions are not required during deployment, and could pose a security risk.

Do not include the .npmrc file if you're not using private repositories, as it can increase the deployment time for your functions.