Steps to recreate
=================
$ git clone -b pyro git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky
$ git clone -b pyro git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
$ source poky/oe-init-build-env
$ bitbake-layers add-layer ../meta-openembedded/meta-oe
$ devtool add "npm://registry.npmjs.org;name=cute-files;version=1.0.2"
$ devtool build cute-files

Observe error (2 more like this)
--------------------------------
ERROR: cute-files-1.0.2-r0 do_install: Function failed: do_install (log file is located at /path/to/build/tmp/work/corei7-64-poky-linux/cute-files/1.0.2-r0/temp/log.do_install.4639)
| npm ERR! Linux 4.10.17-100.fc24.x86_64
| npm ERR! argv "/path/to/build/tmp/work/corei7-64-poky-linux/cute-files/1.0.2-r0/recipe-sysroot-native/usr/bin/node" "/path/to/build/tmp/work/corei7-64-poky-linux/cute-files/1.0.2-r0/recipe-sysroot-native/usr/bin/npm" "install" "--prefix" "/path/to/build/tmp/work/corei7-64-poky-linux/cute-files/1.0.2-r0/image/usr" "-g" "--arch=x64" "--target_arch=x64" "--production" "--no-registry"
| npm ERR! node v4.8.2
| npm ERR! npm  v2.15.11
| 
| npm ERR! Registry not defined and registry files not found: "/path/to/build/tmp/work/corei7-64-poky-linux/cute-files/1.0.2-r0/npm_cache/noregistry/express/.cache.json", "/path/to//build/tmp/work/corei7-64-poky-linux/cute-files/1.0.2-r0/npm_cache/express/.cache.json".

Workaround
==========
Use npm.bbclass do_compile logic from morty
npm_do_install() {
	mkdir -p ${NPM_INSTALLDIR}/
	cp -a ${S}/* ${NPM_INSTALLDIR}/ --no-preserve=ownership
}

Comments
========
1. This is a regression, recipe builds for morty.
2. cute-files was chosen as the example to use in the npm Tips and Tricks article. Article now have to be tagged as invalid.