~: will update you to all future patch versions, without incrementing the minor version. ~1.2.3 will use releases from 1.2.3 to <1.3.0.

^: will update you to all future minor/patch versions, without incrementing the major version. ^2.3.4 will use releases from 2.3.4 to <3.0.0

pre-release: These tags will not be matched by normal semver range semantics, but will allow you to both use and upload development versions. An example would be 1.3.5-alpha.3

References:

• stackoverflow.com/a/22345808/4672162
• stackoverflow.com/questions/21355508/publis..