When using npm install for local package, all files are included - node.js

Question

I am setting up my local module to be installed via npm install --save ../path/to/my/project.
When running the npm install, the node_modules/my_project directory gets populated with all source files - not just the dist/ folder as configured in package.json. I'm not sure why.
Here's my setup:
Test Project (main project)
Files:
index.js
package.json
dist/
index.js
package.json
{
"name": "test",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "a test",
"main": "dist/index.js",
"files": [
"dist"
],
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"keywords": [
"test"
],
"author": "Me",
"license": "MIT"
}
-
Test Project2 (to import main project as a dependency)
package.json
{
"name": "test2",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "test2",
"main": "index.js",
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"author": "Me",
"license": "MIT",
"dependencies": {
"test": "file:../test"
}
}
Once I run npm install, my node_modules/ directory looks like this:
test/
index.js
package.json
dist/
index.js
Is there something I'm overlooking? I'm under the assumption that the files: [] field is used to specify which files are included when the package is installed.
Additionally, I've tried running npm cache clean -f and npm cache verify, neither of which solve my issue.

Answer 1

It seems that this only occurs when attempting to install a local module. To test, I made a test repo on github and installed from there, only the dist/ file was included. Not sure why.