package.json

{
  "name": "wat",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "dependencies": {
    "foo": "git://github.com/dannycoates/poolee.git"
  }
}

q.md

I want to use require('foo') but I have to require('poolee'). Is there a correct way to alias it in package.json? I don't want to use the git project name as the module name.

tree

marceline:wat dcoates$ npm install
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No description
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No repository field.
npm WARN package.json [email protected] No README data
[email protected] node_modules/poolee
└── [email protected]

marceline:wat dcoates$ npm ls
[email protected] /Users/dcoates/code/wat
├── UNMET DEPENDENCY foo@git://github.com/dannycoates/poolee.git
└── [email protected] extraneous (git://github.com/dannycoates/poolee.git#c0f7d2e5e0dc7cd5999331f36b8176a8ac1c5dc0)

npm ERR! missing: foo@git://github.com/dannycoates/poolee.git, required by [email protected]
npm ERR! extraneous: [email protected] /Users/dcoates/code/wat/node_modules/poolee

marceline:wat dcoates$ tree
.
├── node_modules
│   └── poolee
│       ├── LICENSE
│       ├── index.js
│       ├── lib
│       │   ├── endpoint.js
│       │   ├── error.js
│       │   ├── pinger.js
│       │   ├── pool.js
│       │   └── request_set.js
│       ├── node_modules
│       │   └── keep-alive-agent
│       │       ├── LICENSE
│       │       ├── README.md
│       │       ├── index.js
│       │       ├── package.json
│       │       └── test
│       │           └── test.js
│       ├── package.json
│       ├── readme.md
│       └── test
│           ├── endpoint_test.js
│           ├── integration_test.js
│           ├── pool_test.js
│           └── requestset_test.js
└── package.json

marceline:wat dcoates$ node
> require('foo')
Error: Cannot find module 'foo'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:364:17)
    at require (module.js:380:17)
    at repl:1:2
    at REPLServer.self.eval (repl.js:110:21)
    at Interface.<anonymous> (repl.js:239:12)
    at Interface.emit (events.js:95:17)
    at Interface._onLine (readline.js:203:10)
    at Interface._line (readline.js:532:8)
> require('poolee')
{ [Function: Pool]
  super_: { [Function: EventEmitter] listenerCount: [Function] } }
>

The package manifest determines the name of the installed package, so what you're trying to do won't work, by design. There are a bunch of issues filed on npm that describe why this is the case, but the short answer is that it's safer and less confusing overall.