Beyond NPM: What you need to know about JSR

"The JavaScript Registry makes building, sharing, and using JavaScript packages simpler and more secure, and you can use it with or without NPM. NPM, the Node Package Manager, hosts millions of packages and serves billions of downloads annually. It has served well over the years but has its shortcomings, including with TypeScript build complexity and package provenance. Recently, NPM's provenance issues have resulted in prominent security breaches, leading more developers to seek alternatives."

"JSR takes a novel approach to resolving known issues in NPM. For one thing, it can ship you compiled (or stripped) JavaScript, even if the original package is TypeScript. Or, if you are using a platform that runs TypeScript directly (like Deno), you'll get the TypeScript. It also makes stronger guarantees and offers security controls you won't find in NPM. Things like package authentication and metadata tracking are more rigorous. JSR also handles the automatic generation of package documentation."

JSR delivers either compiled JavaScript or original TypeScript based on the runtime, removing TypeScript build steps and reducing friction for package authors. JSR enforces stronger provenance and security controls including package authentication and more rigorous metadata tracking to counter supply-chain vulnerabilities. JSR automates documentation generation and responds to package requests according to application setup with minimal overhead. Publishing workflows become simpler and more reproducible, encouraging enterprise adoption. Major companies such as OpenAI and Supabase are already using JSR, and the registry interoperates with or without NPM as a modern alternative for JavaScript packaging.

Read at InfoWorld