What's the feature?

npm ci is great to use on CI server. But now deleting node_modules folder + running npm ci is much slower on Windows machine than just running npm install .

For instance, npm install:

up to date in 8.125s

npm ci:

added 533 packages from 702 contributors in 33.828s

Is there an opportunity to add some argument (--no-delete for example) to npm ci command?

What problem is the feature intended to solve?

Faster CI builds.

Is the absence of this feature blocking you or your team? If so, how?

This runs way slower so we're blocked from using it.

Is this feature similar to an existing feature in another tool?

Yes, this is implemented in our local .NET package manager.

Is this a feature you're prepared to implement, with support from the npm CLI team?

Yes.