This is another indicator that "lifecycle" scripts in NPM (or other packaging systems, except perhaps Debian or RPM) are an idea we need to learn to live without. At most, packages should be able to emit a message to the user asking them to invoke a one-liner if a setup action is truly necessary.
As a side benefit, eliminating package scripts will contribute toward reproducibility of Docker and VM images.
I was excited about this idea, but based on the writing patterns and vague stories I'm pretty sure these writeups are mostly AI slop. For example, this is classic ChatGPT phrasing:
> The growth I’d been celebrating wasn’t real growth—it was just a spike of first-time buyers who never came back.
If I'm wrong, and these were actually written by a human, I'd love a chance to stand corrected and apologize.
My favorite section in an RFC is "alternatives considered". I've seen many times that an option that had been initially discarded became the solution after review and discussion. It's also a great way to answer later questions about "why didn't you do X instead".
Just imagine being the designer of this thing and sitting at Thanksgiving dinner with your family. "Oh, tedchs, what've you been up to at work?" "Okay well this is gonna sound odd but we invented a camera for your stool... No, not that stool... Yes, it clips onto the bowl..."