npmbox | Utility | Runtime Evironment library

I'm trying to implement a developer workflow with docker, with the ability to develop offline (as in, not having to run npm install when you switch between branches that have differing dependencies)

The most intuitive way to do that is to store dependencies in source control. This has its own issues especially when using modules that compile dependencies. I have tried nearly everything I could think of and find:

• npm packing my projects dependencies, storing in source but this doesn't store my dependencies' dependencies
• storing node_modules in source, copying this to the container and running npm rebuild but it doesn't actually trigger a rebuild
• running npm install --no-registry so t triggers a rebuild but doesn't try to call out, but it actually calls out to the public registry anyway
• other solutions I've seen like Node-PAC seem abandoned
• npmbox looks the most promising but it requires that it's installed on the target globally, which would work in a container I can build but not production, unless we start deploying containers in production.

Is this a fruitless effort? Lack of network access is rare and would only really be needed when installing a new module or moving between revisions that have differing dependencies