To initialize a Node.js project locally,

• Run the following command -

npm init -y

• Exploring package.json

• Writing some code

let firstName = "Harkirat Singh"
console.log(firstName)

• Run the code

node index.js

• Add a script in package.json

  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  },

• Run npm run start

In a Node.js application, npm start and npm run start are usually equivalent, but there are some nuances:

npm start

This is a shorthand command that executes the start script defined in your package.json file.

If there is a start script defined in the scripts section of package.json, npm start will run it.

If no start script is defined, npm start will default to running node server.js (if a server.js file exists in the root directory).

npm run start

This is a more explicit way to run any script defined in the scripts section of your package.json.