Npm

install package globally

sudo npm install -g [package]

install package local

Install package to ~/node_modules

npm install [package]

To install to another folder:

# to install into parallel with the .npm cache folder...
npm install --prefix ~/.npm [package]

# example:
npm install --prefix ~/.npm docker-browse

This will create:
~/.npm/node_modules/
~/.npm/node_modules/docker-browse/
~/.npm/node_modules/several-other-dependecies/
~/.npm/package.json
~/.npm/package-lock.json

Add binary to path:

# example of docker-browse with --prefix used
ln -s ~/.npm/node_modules/docker-browse/

Node.js

See Node.js