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The auth keys `_authToken`, `_auth`, etc. are looked up by registry URI with an exact string match, but nothing in the docs said so. A scope that differs from the registry URL by a single trailing slash or a port is simply a different key, so npm finds no credentials at all and commands that need to log in fail with ENEEDAUTH and the generic "This command requires you to be logged in" message - the same message shown when no credentials were ever configured. Add a subsection to the auth configuration section explaining the exact-match rule, that a host-level scope is not a fallback for a path on that host, and that the ENEEDAUTH message is misleading in this case because the token is present but keyed to a non-matching URI. It also documents how to check which key npm actually resolved with `npm config get` and `npm config ls -l`. Closes: npm#3618
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Adds a "How npm matches a credential to a registry" subsection to
configuring-npm/npmrc.md.It documents the lookup implemented in
npm-registry-fetch(lib/auth.js,regFromURI): starting from//host[:port]/pathof the registry URL, npm walks up the path until it finds a key with credentials, so host-level and shorter-path keys apply, while a different host or port never matches. It also notes that a non-matching key surfaces asENEEDAUTH/ "This command requires you to be logged in" (lib/utils/get-identity.js,lib/commands/publish.js), the same error as having no credentials at all.Scope: documentation only. This does not fix #3618 (the error message itself remains obscure); it just explains the matching rules so the error is easier to diagnose. Refs #3618 — the issue should stay open for an error-message improvement if you want one.
No tests run (docs only).
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