pnpm/docs/store-json.md

store.json

store.json contains information about all the different internal/external dependencies that the packages in the store have. This is especially useful because pnpm allows to use shared stores.

pnpm

The last compatible pnpm version that has modified the store.

packages[packageId].dependents

A dictionary that shows what packages are dependent on each of the package from the store. The dependent packages can be other packages from the store, or packages that use the store to install their dependencies.

For example, pnpm has a dependency on npm and semver. But semver is also a dependency of npm. It means that after installation, the store.json would have connections like this in the dependents property:

{
  "packages": {
    "semver@5.3.0": {
      "dependents": [
        "/home/john_smith/src/pnpm",
        "npm@3.10.2"
      ]
    },
    "npm@3.10.2": {
      "dependents": [
        "/home/john_smith/src/pnpm"
      ]
    }
  }
}

packages[packageId].dependencies

A dictionary that is the opposite of dependents. However, it contains not just a list of dependency names but a map of the dependencies to their exact resolved ID.

{
  "packages": {
    "/home/john_smith/src/pnpm": {
      "dependencies": {
        "semver": "semver@5.3.0",
        "npm": "npm@3.10.2"
      }
    },
    "npm@3.10.2": {
      "dependencies": {
        "semver": "semver@5.3.0"
      }
    }
  }
}