diff --git a/lib/manager/npm/registry.js b/lib/manager/npm/registry.js
index 3189e6bb779acd8b39dc1c7b54f4ec562836fe17..904ee08de92d0ed3d0926f0b0d0547892b9865f5 100644
--- a/lib/manager/npm/registry.js
+++ b/lib/manager/npm/registry.js
@@ -18,7 +18,9 @@ module.exports = {
 let npmrc = null;
 
 function setNpmrc(input) {
-  npmrc = ini.parse(input);
+  if (input) {
+    npmrc = ini.parse(input);
+  }
 }
 
 async function getDependency(name) {
diff --git a/lib/workers/repository/init/apis.js b/lib/workers/repository/init/apis.js
index b252794cf02760f0c95712b9670afa3ae4d5b001..5433ace65922e6c22ab970cf837a47a7ac5a3279 100644
--- a/lib/workers/repository/init/apis.js
+++ b/lib/workers/repository/init/apis.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 const { initPlatform } = require('../../../platform');
 const { detectSemanticCommits } = require('./semantic');
+const npmApi = require('../../../manager/npm/registry');
 
 function assignPlatform(config) {
   logger.debug('assignPlatform');
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ async function getPlatformConfig(config) {
 
 async function initApis(input, token) {
   let config = { ...input, token };
+  npmApi.setNpmrc(config.npmrc);
   config = await assignPlatform(config);
   config = await getPlatformConfig(config);
   config = await detectSemanticCommits(config);