Is there a way to move the node_modules directory in an application to let's say /vendor/node_modules like bower does with the bowerrc file? I thought it could be specified in package.json but I can't seem to find a solution. Your help is much appreciated.
yes you can, just set the NODE_PATH env variable :
export NODE_PATH='yourdir'/node_modules
According to the doc :
If the NODE_PATH environment variable is set to a colon-delimited list of absolute paths, then node will search those paths for modules if they are not found elsewhere. (Note: On Windows, NODE_PATH is delimited by semicolons instead of colons.)
Additionally, node will search in the following locations:
1: $HOME/.node_modules
2: $HOME/.node_libraries
3: $PREFIX/lib/node
Where $HOME is the user's home directory, and $PREFIX is node's configured node_prefix.
These are mostly for historic reasons. You are highly encouraged to place your dependencies locally in node_modules folders. They will be loaded faster, and more reliably.