During my usage of Node.js, there are certain tools I utilize frequently. nvm (Node Version Manager) and ncu (npm-check-updates) are two that are installed whenever there is a need to setup a new development environment.

Node Version Manager

nvm allows you to install and manage multiple Node.js versions in your environment. If you are using Homebrew, run brew install nvm, follow the prompts, and you will be able to start using it. There are more detailed instructions in nvm's GitHub page. There is also a Windows' version called nvm-windows, which has the basic functionalities of the bash version.

These are some of the common commands I use for nvm:

nvm ls # list installed versions
nvm ls-remote # list all remote versions

nvm install 16 # install Node.js 16
nvm install 18 # install Node.js 18

nvm use 16 # use Node.js 16
nvm use 18 # use Node.js 18

# install a newer version and reinstall packages from an older version
nvm install <new> --reinstall-packages-from=<old>

npm-check-updates

Once you have node and need a way to manage packages in a project, ncu aids in that.

npm i -g npm-check-updates # install ncu globally

ncu # show packages that can be upgraded

ncu -u # update the package.json in your project
ncu -t minor -u # only perform minor upgrade
ncu -t patch -u # only perform patch upgrade

ncu -x esbuild # exculde certain packages from upgrades

You would still need to run npm install after running ncu to install the packages, as ncu only updates package.json.