I patched a npm package

I was using Gridsome to write this blog from Markdown contents. However, the transformer-remark plugin which transforms a Markdown content to a HTML content doesn't have the functionality to generate an excerpt automatically from the content itself. It requires the excerpt field to be filled manually in front matter. Plus I wanted it so bad that I couldn't wait for the PR to be merged and published to the npm repository. I then decided to create a patch for it so I can have the feature in my own blog as early as possible.

At first, I was thinking of publishing my own package which is a clone of transformer-remark plus the patch. The document is pretty straightforward and I actually used it. However I soon realized that:

• It requires couple of steps to publish to npm.
• We need to maintain the version of the package for new changes.
• It would spam npm with unnecessary content if I keep doing it for every customization.

Later I found out that npm and yarn support to install a package from a git repository. It is so simple that you only need to:

• Patch the change & push it to your own git repository (I would do the same thing for all of my codes).
• Use the npm or yarn command like below to install it:

yarn add https://github.com/bongnv/transformer-remark
// or
npm install https://github.com/bongnv/transformer-remark

As the repository is a public one, any CI should have no problem to install the package from it. You won't need to register for a npm account nor to maintain a version of your package.

It's cool, right? I also happen to learn that beside git repository we can add from a local directory. We can also use yarn link or npm link to link a local fork of the package for testing purpose.