diff --git a/playbooks/roles/edxapp/tasks/main.yml b/playbooks/roles/edxapp/tasks/main.yml
index 67ac738..045d6a1 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/edxapp/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/edxapp/tasks/main.yml
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@
     state=link
     owner="{{ edxapp_user }}"
     group="{{ common_web_group }}"
-    
 
 - name: create edxapp log dir
   file: >
@@ -70,6 +69,12 @@
   - "restart edxapp"
   - "restart edxapp_workers"
 
+- name: set up edxapp .npmrc
+  template:
+    src=.npmrc.j2 dest={{ edxapp_app_dir }}/.npmrc
+    owner={{ edxapp_user }} group={{ common_web_group }}
+    mode=0600
+
 - name: create log directories for service variants
   notify:
   - "restart edxapp"
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/edxapp/templates/.npmrc.j2 b/playbooks/roles/edxapp/templates/.npmrc.j2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a82b34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playbooks/roles/edxapp/templates/.npmrc.j2
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+registry={{ COMMON_NPM_MIRROR_URL }}