Document npm lockfile regeneration for external contributors

[Jackson Weber (JacksonWeber)]

Summary

• Document that the committed npm lockfile is generated through Microsoft's package proxy, which Microsoft contributors are required to use for security and vulnerability policies.
• Following Update uv-lock opentelemetry-distro-python#268, explain how contributors who cannot access the proxy can generate a replacement lockfile for local use through an accessible registry.
• Include npm-specific guidance to avoid reusing existing installed-package metadata, regenerate rather than edit recorded artifact URLs, and account for scoped registry routing and possible version differences.
• Add an Unreleased changelog entry. No new lockfile submission policy is introduced.

The earlier registry-neutral configuration experiment has been removed. The final change retains the existing Microsoft-feed lockfile without modifying dependency versions, integrity hashes, package.json, or npm configuration.

Validation

• Final diff against main contains only CONTRIBUTING.md and CHANGELOG.md.
• Confirmed the tracked lockfile exactly matches the original/upstream file and no root .npmrc is added.
• Checked npm lockfile-generation semantics and git diff --check.
• This is now a documentation-only change; the earlier runtime test results covered the superseded experiment.
• The public-registry example has not been network-validated in this environment: earlier isolated npmjs installation and independent curl/Node connection checks were blocked by TLS handshake failures. No TLS weakening or registry-policy bypass was attempted.

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

Sample projects remain tied to internal-feed lockfile URLs unless the policy scope is clarified or extended.

Pull request overview

This PR makes the root npm lockfile registry-neutral while preserving dependency versions, integrity hashes, and relationships.

Changes:

• Adds registry-neutral npm configuration.
• Removes 486 registry-specific resolved fields.
• Documents installation and lockfile update behavior.

File summaries

File	Summary
package-lock.json	Removes registry resolution URLs while preserving locked metadata.
CONTRIBUTING.md	Documents registry-neutral installation and update workflows.
.npmrc	Enables registry-neutral lockfile generation. Moderate finding (1 vote): sample projects remain tied to internal-feed URLs.

Review details

Suppressed comments (1)

.npmrc:1

• This setting only affects the repository-root npm project. The documented sample projects have separate package roots and committed lockfiles (samples/package.json and samples/aks-langchain/package.json), and those lockfiles still contain resolved URLs to ms-feed-*.pkgs.visualstudio.com (for example, samples/aks-langchain/package-lock.json:21). Running npm install/npm ci in a sample therefore remains tied to the internal feed, so either apply the registry-neutral policy to those projects too or clarify that this change covers only the root package.

omit-lockfile-registry-resolved=true

• Files reviewed: 2/3 changed files
• Comments generated: 0
• Review effort level: Lite

---

💡 Add a code-review agent skill or configure MCP servers for context-aware, tailored reviews. Learn more in the docs.