Installing npm packages is fundamental for Node.js development, enabling you to leverage thousands of community libraries and tools for faster application development. As the creator of CoreUI, a widely used open-source UI library, I’ve installed countless npm packages across Node.js projects for build tools, testing frameworks, and utility libraries in enterprise applications. From my expertise, the most standard approach is to use npm install command with proper dependency classification. This method ensures proper package management, version control, and deployment optimization through correct package.json configuration.