Why I switched from npm to pnpm (and stayed)

The trigger

A dependency conflict caused different versions of a package to load depending on import order. npm flattened the tree in a way that masked it locally but broke in CI.

pnpm's model

pnpm uses a content-addressable store. Each package version is stored once. Symlinks compose the virtual node_modules. Phantom dependencies become errors, not silent surprises.

Practical differences

• node_modules is 3× smaller (shared store across projects)
• Workspace support is first-class and fast
• pnpm why <package> is invaluable for auditing

The one downside

Some tools still assume a flat node_modules. Electron builders and some native addon tools need a --shamefully-hoist flag as a workaround.