(This is a documentation change request)

I generally use npm for private projects. Even though I download public dependencies via npm, I have no intention of ever publishing most of my projects on npm, since they're too specific to be of use to others.

The documentation for package.json currently states that "The most important things in your package.json are the name and version fields. Those are actually required, and your package won't install without them".

This makes sense if I'm developing a package meant to be published and installed as a dependency on other projects.
However, on private projects, specifying the name and version values seems unnecessary. In fact, if I set "private": true and omit the name and version fields, nearly all tools work and show no warnings.

So, first, a question: are name and version officially considered to be required fields even for private projects?
And if not, could this exception be clarified in the documentation?