---
title: "How one developer just broke Node, Babel and thousands of projects in 11 lines of JavaScript"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-one-developer-just-broke-node-babel-and-thousands-of-projects-in-11-lines-of-javascript-wqdtxywd7
source_url: https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/
type: article
source: "Community Picks"
published: 2024-01-09T13:26:47.059Z
updated: 2024-01-09T13:26:46.501Z
tags: ["javascript", "open-source", "npm", "babel"]
reading_time: 3
upvotes: 7
comments: 5
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How one developer just broke Node, Babel and thousands of projects in 11 lines of JavaScript

**[Community Picks](https://daily.dev/sources/community)** · 3 min read · 7 upvotes · 5 comments

## Summary

A developer broke Node, Babel, and thousands of projects by removing a popular module from NPM, causing widespread disruptions. The module was removed due to brand infringement claims. NPM took the unprecedented step of restoring the unpublished module to resolve the issue.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@nikl** · 1 upvotes

> So npm has issues

**@pararise** · 1 upvotes

> Sumirized by GPT 4 :
>
> This article describes a major disruption in the JavaScript programming community caused by the actions of a developer named Azer Koçulu. Here's a summary:
>
> - **Incident**: Developer Azer Koçulu unpublished over 250 of his modules from NPM (Node Package Manager), a crucial tool used for managing JavaScript dependencies.
>
> - **Trigger**: The dispute started over a module named "Kik," which shared its name with an instant-messaging app. Kik's legal team asked Koçulu to rename his module due to brand infringement. When he refused, they approached NPM's administrators,...

**@kkurko** · 1 upvotes

> There is a nice [video](https://youtu.be/IzqtWTMFv9Y?si=8DYOqqVXOJnkUjqf) that covers both this case and the recent case with the `everything` package

**@lvasquez** · 0 upvotes

> this happened in 2016

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---

Tags: [#javascript](https://daily.dev/tags/javascript), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#npm](https://daily.dev/tags/npm), [#babel](https://daily.dev/tags/babel)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-one-developer-just-broke-node-babel-and-thousands-of-projects-in-11-lines-of-javascript-wqdtxywd7)