Resolving EACCES permissions errors when installing packages globally (Mac OS)

If you see an EACCES error when you try to install a package globally, you can either: Reinstall npm with a node version manager (recommended), or Manually change npm's default directory

Manually change npm's default directory

Note: This section does not apply to Microsoft Windows.

To minimize the chance of permissions errors, you can configure npm to use a different directory. In this example, you will create and use hidden directory in your home directory.

Back up your computer.
On the command line, in your home directory, create a directory for global installations:
```
mkdir ~/.npm-global
```
Configure npm to use the new directory path:
```
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
```
In your preferred text editor, open or create a ~/.profile file and add this line:
```
export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH
```
On the command line, update your system variables:
```
source ~/.profile
```
To test your new configuration, install a package globally without using sudo:
```
npm install -g jshint
```

Instead of steps 2-4, you can use the corresponding ENV variable (e.g. if you don't want to modify ~/.profile):

NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX=~/.npm-global

Reference: https://docs.npmjs.com/resolving-eacces-permissions-errors-when-installing-packages-globally