Scaling NPM in VMs with Npmserve

In plain words

Npmserve is a developer tool that speeds up npm package installations in virtual machines. Built by Plaid to solve performance issues with npm running in VirtualBox environments, it addresses the significant slowdown developers experienced when using Vagrant-based development setups. The tool helps engineering teams reduce installation times and maintain productivity in virtualized development environments.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

At Plaid, we spend a lot of time thinking about the tools we use on the engineering side, which has helped us to automate time-consuming tasks and focus on empowering our customers. We wanted to peel back the curtain a bit to share some of the tools—and decisions—that help Plaid run. Recently, the Plaid team introduced a developer environment built on Vagrant and Chef. The transition made development easier but created an unexpected problem: npm install nearly ground to a halt in VirtualBox. Installs were 10 times slower than running on standard hardware. We ultimately chose to build a tool called npmserve and offload our installs to a remote server. It was an interesting experience getting…from blog.plaid.com

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