Installing Express

Assuming you’ve already installed Node.js, create a directory to hold your application, and make that your working directory.

• Express 4.x requires Node.js 0.10 or higher.
• Express 5.x requires Node.js 18 or higher.

mkdir myapp
cd myapp

Use the npm init command to create a package.json file for your application. For more information on how package.json works, see Specifics of npm’s package.json handling.

npm

npm init

pnpm

pnpm init

bun

bun init

This command prompts you for a number of things, such as the name and version of your application. For now, you can simply hit RETURN to accept the defaults for most of them, with the following exception:

entry point: (index.js)

Enter app.js, or whatever you want the name of the main file to be. If you want it to be index.js, hit RETURN to accept the suggested default file name.

Now, install Express in the myapp directory and save it in the dependencies list. For example:

npm

npm add express

pnpm

pnpm add express

bun

bun add express

To install Express temporarily and not add it to the dependencies list:

npm

npm install express --no-save

bun

bun add express --no-save

Note

By default with version npm 5.0+, npm install adds the module to the dependencies list in the package.json file; with earlier versions of npm, you must specify the --save option explicitly. Then, afterwards, running npm install in the app directory will automatically install modules in the dependencies list.