[notpublic]

You can find out which packages require postinstall scripts and then run them manually:

  $ grep postinstall node_modules/*/package.json
  node_modules/esbuild/package.json:    "postinstall": "node install.js"
  $ cd node_modules/esbuild
  $ npm run postinstall

[inbx0]

And to clarify, you should run this once by hand to collect the list, don't add the grepping to the actuall installation script or you are back to square one :D

Here's what I use with yarn, install.sh:

    #!/usr/bin/env bash

    yarn

    function run_install() {
      local dependency="node_modules/$1"
      if [[ -d "$dependency" ]]; then
        yarn --cwd "$dependency" run postinstall
      fi
    }

    run_install 'esbuild'
    run_install 'other_package'
    ...

[notpublic]

Good point and nice script. I am going to use it in my projects.

I wish package.json had an option where I could explicitly mark which packages can run postinstall scripts.

[dustyharddrive]

> explicitly mark which packages can run postinstall scripts

Here's an RFC on exactly that: https://github.com/npm/rfcs/discussions/80