I don't see how this would work in practise. You could use module-alias[1] to actually switch to the backup copy during dev or a local build, but that will only

I don't see how this would work in practise. You could use module-alias[1] to actually switch to the backup copy during dev or a local build, but that will only work when the backup is on the same machine you're building on, and then everyone on the team will need to have the same backup (or use a network drive for it I guess). If you don't check in your backup then nothing will get through CI or make it to production. Why not just check in node_modules and let git handle the 'backup' process? [1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/module-alias https://www.npmjs.com/package/module-alias