package.json for minimal command-line utility - node.js

Question

I am trying to create a command-line utility. But, npm install (no -g) does not link the executable.
My expectation is that npm install would install my executable locally.
My package.json looks like:
{
"name": "test-bin",
"version": "0.1.0",
"description": "Test bin",
"bin": "./bin/test-bin.js",
"main": "./index.js",
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"repository": {
"type": "git",
"url": "file:///tmp/test-bin.git"
}
}
index.js is:
module.exports = function() {
console.log('invoked')
}
bin/test-bin.js is:
require('../')()
If I run npm install, node_modules is created, but not .bin
However, if create another project elsewhere that uses the first as a dependency:
{
"name": "test-test-bin",
"version": "0.1.0",
"description": "Test test bin",
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"repository": {
"type": "git",
"url": "file:///tmp/test-test-bin.git"
},
"dependencies": {
"test-bin": "file:///Users/you/somewhere/test-bin"
}
}
then npm install links the executable in that project:
node_modules/.bin/test-bin
The npm documentation says, about "bin":
To use this, supply a bin field in your package.json which is a map of
command name to local file name. On install, npm will symlink that
file into prefix/bin for global installs, or ./node_modules/.bin/ for
local installs.
Is it as designed, or am I missing something?

Answer 1

Running npm install inside a package folder will install its dependencies, but it doesn't install any binaries that the package itself declares (you could argue what the point of that would be).
That only happens when the package is installed as a package (using npm install package-name or as a dependency for other packages).