npm
Node Package Manager — world's largest package registry with 3M+ packages. Isaac Schlueter, 2010. Default package manager for Node.js.
Acquired by GitHub (Microsoft) in 2020. The npm CLI installs packages from the registry, manages dependencies via package.json + lockfile. Competitors: Yarn (Facebook 2016, initially faster), pnpm (symlink-based, most disk-efficient), Bun (fastest 2024). npx runs packages without installation. Wait — the "left-pad incident" in 2016 broke the internet when an 11-line package was removed. Supply chain attacks via typosquatting + maintainer hijack are a constant risk.