Start an npm script with pm2

Today I needed to run a long running npm script with pm2, but it wasn’t immediate how to run it.

pm2 start --help shows how the start command works:

pm2 start --help

  Usage: start [options] <file|json|stdin|app_name|pm_id...>

  start and daemonize an app

What I wanted to use is a file/program, namely npm.

The most common use case is to run npm start.

To run npm start with pm2 I needed to run it the following way:

NODE_ENV=production pm2 start --no-autorestart --name LONG_RUNNING_TASK npm -- start

Similarly, to run any npm script, you can run it the following way:

NODE_ENV=production pm2 start --no-autorestart --name LONG_RUNNING_TASK npm -- run some-script