Visual Studio npm install on TFS get-latest - visual-studio

Question

When TFS "get latest" pulls in a package.json change that adds a dev dependency, Visual Studio 2017 doesn't automatically run "npm install". This breaks any gulp tasks in "watch" mode that depend on the new package.
The only way I can see to cause an npm install is to manually touch package.json or restart VS.
Is there a way to trigger "npm install" on "get latest"?

Answer 1

Here is a wireframe of the solution I settled on. tl;dr - implement my own package.json watcher in Gulp to stop Webpack, run npm install, and restart Webpack.
const gulp = require('gulp');
const install = require('gulp-install');
const watch = require('glob-watcher');
const webpack = require('webpack');
gulp.task('default', ['webpack']);
gulp.task('webpack', function () {
// Start the initial Webpack build.
let webpackCompiler = webpack({
// ...
watch: true
// ...
});
// Set up a watcher to kill Webpack, run 'npm install', and restart Webpack when package.json changes.
let packageWatcher = watch('./package.json', { events: ['change'] }, () => {
packageWatcher.close();
console.log('Stopped package.json watcher.');
webpackWatcher.close(() => {
console.log('Stopped Webpack watcher.');
gulp.start('npm-install-then-webpack');
});
});
console.log('Started package.json watcher.');
});
gulp.task('npm-install', function (callback) {
gulp.src('./package.json')
.pipe(install(callback));
});
gulp.task('npm-install-then-webpack', ['npm-install'], function () {
gulp.start('webpack');
});