Configuration

Bower can be configured using JSON in a .bowerrc file. For example:

{
  "directory": "app/components/",
  "timeout": 120000,
  "registry": {
    "search": [
      "http://localhost:8000",
      "https://registry.bower.io"
    ]
  }
}

Placement & Order

The config is obtained by merging multiple configurations by this order of importance:

• CLI arguments via --config
• Environment variables
• Local .bowerrc located in the current working directory
• All .bowerrc files upwards the directory tree
• .bowerrc file located in user’s home folder (~)
• .bowerrc file located in the global folder (/)

Example of CLI arguments:

• --config.endpoint-parser=<parser>
• --config.storage.packages=<packages_cache_dir>

Example of valid environment variables:

• bower_endpoint_parser is evaluated as endpoint-parser
• bower_storage__packages is evaluated as storage.packages

Example of valid environment variables with Array convention:

• export bower_registry__search='[http://localhost:8080, http://registry.bower.io]'; bower install

.bowerrc specification

Available configuration variables, in .bowerrc format:

{
  "cwd": "~/.my-project",
  "directory": "bower_components",
  "registry": "https://registry.bower.io",
  "shorthand-resolver": "git://github.com//.git",
  "proxy": "http://proxy.local",
  "https-proxy": "http://proxy.local",
  "ca": "/var/certificate.pem",
  "color": true,
  "timeout": 60000,
  "save": true,
  "save-exact": true,
  "strict-ssl": true,
  "storage": {
    "packages" : "~/.bower/packages",
    "registry" : "~/.bower/registry",
    "links" : "~/.bower/links"
  },
  "interactive": true,
  "resolvers": [
    "mercurial-bower-resolver"
  ],
  "shallowCloneHosts": [
    "myGitHost.example.com"
  ],
  "scripts": {
    "preinstall": "",
    "postinstall": "",
    "preuninstall": ""
  },
  "ignoredDependencies": [
    "jquery"
  ]
}

A detailed description of available configuration variables can be found in bower/spec repository.

Environment variables in .bowerrc

One can use environment variables in .bowerrc, using the following syntax ${ENV_VAR}.

"storage" : {
  "packages": "/path/to/${USER}/packages"
}

Hooks

Bower provides 3 separate hooks that can be used to trigger other automated tools during Bower usage. Importantly, these hooks are intended to allow external tools to help wire up the newly installed components into the parent project and other similar tasks. These hooks are not intended to provide a post-installation build step for component authors. As such, the configuration for these hooks is provided in the .bowerrc file in the parent project’s directory.

In .bowerrc do:

{
  "scripts": {
    "preinstall": "<your command here>",
    "postinstall": "<your command here>",
    "preuninstall": "<your command here>"
  }
}

The value of each script hook may contain a % character. When your script is called, the % will be replaced with a space-separated list of components being installed or uninstalled.

Your script will also include an environment variable BOWER_PID containing the PID of the parent Bower process that triggered the script. This can be used to verify that a preinstall and postinstall steps are part of the same Bower process.