# Vercel Agent now installs private packages from npm and custom registries By Steven Van ยท 2026-09-30 Credentials come from team-shared Development or Preview variables, and the agent itself cannot read them. Vercel Agent can now install private npm packages. It reads credentials from shared team environment variables, and npm, pnpm and classic Yarn authenticate in Agent sessions the same way they do in [Vercel]() builds. The [private dependencies docs]() cover setup. To set it up, add a shared environment variable for Development or Preview in the team's settings: - **NPM\_TOKEN** for private packages hosted on registry.npmjs.org. The value is an npm access token with read access to the packages the repository needs. - **NPM\_RC** for a custom registry or several registries. The value is the registry configuration from an .npmrc file, and the docs give examples for GitHub Packages and JFrog Artifactory. If both variables are set in the same environment, NPM\_RC takes precedence. Vercel Agent reads only team-shared variables, not project-scoped ones, and it checks Development before Preview. Credential values stay outside the sandbox, so the agent cannot read them. Authentication covers package downloads only, not publishing or registry administration. To give the agent different credentials from builds, use VERCEL\_AGENT\_NPM\_RC or VERCEL\_AGENT\_NPM\_TOKEN. Setting VERCEL\_AGENT\_NPM\_RC to an empty string in Development disables registry authentication. ![Vercel]() Vercel The platform for frontend developers โ€” deploy, preview, and scale web apps and AI agents with zero config. [View Vercel โ†’]() [Read the original announcement โ†’]() [Read Vercel Agent now installs private packages from npm and custom registries on Creators Toolbox]() --- Canonical source: https://creatorstoolbox.com/blog/vercel-vercel-agent-now-installs-private-packages-from-npm-and-custom-registr