pnpm patch

Prepare a package for patching (inspired by a similar command in Yarn).

This command will cause a package to be extracted in a temporary directory intended to be editable at will.

Once you're done with your changes, run pnpm patch-commit <path> (with <path> being the temporary directory you received) to generate a patchfile and register it into your top-level manifest via the patchedDependencies field.

Usage:

pnpm patch <pkg name>@<version>

:::note

If you want to change the dependencies of a package, don't use patching to modify the package.json file of the package. For overriding dependencies, use overrides or a package hook.

:::

Options

--edit-dir <dir>

The package that needs to be patched will be extracted to this directory.

--ignore-existing

Ignore existing patch files when patching.

Configuration

patchedDependencies

This field is added/updated automatically when you run pnpm patch-commit. It defines patches for dependencies using a dictionary where:

• Keys: Package names with an exact version, a version range, or just the name.
• Values: Relative paths to patch files.

Example:

patchedDependencies:
  [email protected]: patches/[email protected]

Dependencies can be patched by version range. The priority order is:

1. Exact versions (highest priority)
2. Version ranges
3. Name-only patches (applies to all versions unless overridden)

A special case: the version range * behaves like a name-only patch but does not ignore patch failures.

Example:

patchedDependencies:
  foo: patches/foo-1.patch
  foo@^2.0.0: patches/foo-2.patch
  [email protected]: patches/foo-3.patch

• patches/foo-3.patch is applied to [email protected].
• patches/foo-2.patch applies to all foo versions matching ^2.0.0, except 2.1.0.
• patches/foo-1.patch applies to all other foo versions.

Avoid overlapping version ranges. If you need to specialize a sub-range, explicitly exclude it from the broader range.

Example:

patchedDependencies:
  # Specialized sub-range
  "[email protected]": patches/foo.2.2.0-2.8.0.patch
  # General patch, excluding the sub-range above
  "foo@>=2.0.0 <2.2.0 || >2.8.0": patches/foo.gte2.patch

In most cases, defining an exact version is enough to override a broader range.

allowUnusedPatches

Added in: v10.7.0 (Previously named allowNonAppliedPatches)

• Default: false
• Type: Boolean

When true, installation won't fail if some of the patches from the patchedDependencies field were not applied.

patchedDependencies:
  express@4.18.1: patches/express@4.18.1.patch
allowUnusedPatches: true

ignorePatchFailures

Added in: v10.7.0

• Default: undefined
• Type: Boolean, undefined

Controls how patch failures are handled.

Behaviour:

• undefined (default):
  • Errors out when a patch with an exact version or version range fails.
  • Ignores failures from name-only patches.
• false: Errors out for any patch failure.
• true: Prints a warning instead of failing when any patch cannot be applied.