NPM uses your package-lock.json for normal installs as well. "npm ci" behaves nearly identical to npm install except for a few things, detailed here: https://do

NPM uses your package-lock.json for normal installs as well. "npm ci" behaves nearly identical to npm install except for a few things, detailed here: https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/commands/npm-ci https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/commands/npm-ci Note that actually using package-lock.json to resolve dependency versions is not actually a difference between npm install and npm ci The real benefit is that npm ci will refuse to work if package.json and package-lock.json disagree, which protects against changing package.json without running NPM install during development.