In npm v5.7.1 a new command was added - npm ci. Npm team claims it is faster (2x-10x) than npm install

The new npm ci command installs from your lock-file ONLY. If your package.json and your lock-file are out of sync then it will report an error.

It works by throwing away your node_modules and recreating it from scratch.

Beyond guaranteeing you that you'll only get what is in your lock-file it's also much faster (2x-10x!) than npm install when you don't start with a node_modules.

As you may take from the name, we expect it to be a big boon to continuous integration environments. We also expect that folks who do production deploys from git tags will see major gains.