--- title: npm-start section: 1 description: Start a package --- ### Synopsis ```bash npm start [-- <args>] ``` ### Description This runs a predefined command specified in the `"start"` property of a package's `"scripts"` object. If the `"scripts"` object does not define a `"start"` property, npm will run `node server.js`. Note that this is different from the default node behavior of running the file specified in a package's `"main"` attribute when evoking with `node .` As of [`npm@2.0.0`](https://blog.npmjs.org/post/98131109725/npm-2-0-0), you can use custom arguments when executing scripts. Refer to [`npm run-script`](/commands/npm-run-script) for more details. ### Example ```json { "scripts": { "start": "node foo.js" } } ``` ```bash npm start > npm@x.x.x start > node foo.js (foo.js output would be here) ``` ### Configuration #### `ignore-scripts` * Default: false * Type: Boolean If true, npm does not run scripts specified in package.json files. Note that commands explicitly intended to run a particular script, such as `npm start`, `npm stop`, `npm restart`, `npm test`, and `npm run-script` will still run their intended script if `ignore-scripts` is set, but they will *not* run any pre- or post-scripts. #### `script-shell` * Default: '/bin/sh' on POSIX systems, 'cmd.exe' on Windows * Type: null or String The shell to use for scripts run with the `npm exec`, `npm run` and `npm init <package-spec>` commands. ### See Also * [npm run-script](/commands/npm-run-script) * [npm scripts](/using-npm/scripts) * [npm test](/commands/npm-test) * [npm restart](/commands/npm-restart) * [npm stop](/commands/npm-stop)