### Problem to solve We know from a recent [round of user research](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/uxr_insights/issues/623), that users typically navigate to the Package Registry user interface to accomplish one of three tasks: 1. To ensure my package was uploaded correctly (22.9%) 1. To look up which version of a package I should be using in my environment (21.7%) 1. To verify my CI pipeline built the package as expected In order to verify that their package was uploaded correctly or to look up which version of a package should be used, users would like to use package meta data to identify the correct version of their package. NPM tags can be used to provide an alias instead of version numbers, making it easier to discover packages. For example, a project might choose to have multiple streams of development and use a different tag for each stream, e.g., stable, beta, dev, canary. ### Target audience - Sasha, Software Developer, https://design.gitlab.com/research/personas#persona-sasha - Devon, DevOps Engineer, https://design.gitlab.com/research/personas#persona-devon ### Further details <!--- Include use cases, benefits, and/or goals (contributes to our vision?) --> ### Proposal Update the NPM Registry to add support for package tags when [`npm` CLI](https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/dist-tag) interacts with the backend. #### Adds 3 url endpoints to `NpmPackages` for tags handling. `Packages::Npm::` List all the tags within a given package: ``` $ npm dist-tag ls @root/bacon latest: 1.4.0 ``` Create a new tag: ``` $ npm dist-tag add @root/bacon@1.3.0 tagme +tagme: @root/bacon@1.3.0 $ npm dist-tag ls @root/bacon latest: 1.4.0 tagme: 1.3.0 ``` Use the tag when install the package: ``` $ npm install @root/bacon@tagme npm WARN @root/client@1.0.0 No repository field. + @root/bacon@1.3.0 updated 1 package in 15.692s ``` Remove the tag: ``` $ npm dist-tag rm @root/bacon tagme -tagme: @root/bacon@1.3.0 $ npm dist-tag ls @root/bacon latest: 1.4.0 ``` #### UI As we've been redesigning the [Package Registry](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/31639), we have included npm tags as part of that design. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/12954 will capture the final design / work.  ### What does success look like, and how can we measure that? Tags can be pushed, consumed, and displayed with GitLab. ### Links / references - https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/dist-tag