diff --git a/__tests__/fixtures/lifecycle-scripts/npm_config_argv_env_vars/log-command.js b/__tests__/fixtures/lifecycle-scripts/npm_config_argv_env_vars/log-command.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..725005575a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/__tests__/fixtures/lifecycle-scripts/npm_config_argv_env_vars/log-command.js
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+try {
+  const argv = JSON.parse(process.env['npm_config_argv']);
+
+  console.log(`##${argv.cooked[0]}##`);
+} catch (err) {
+  console.log(`##${err.toString()}##`);
+}
diff --git a/__tests__/fixtures/lifecycle-scripts/npm_config_argv_env_vars/package.json b/__tests__/fixtures/lifecycle-scripts/npm_config_argv_env_vars/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e01fd2a6f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/__tests__/fixtures/lifecycle-scripts/npm_config_argv_env_vars/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "name": "npm_config_argv_env_vars",
+  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "main": "index.js",
+  "license": "MIT",
+  "scripts": {
+    "prepublish" : "node log-command.js",
+    "pretest" : "node log-command.js"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/__tests__/lifecycle-scripts.js b/__tests__/lifecycle-scripts.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4c396a3733
--- /dev/null
+++ b/__tests__/lifecycle-scripts.js
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/* @flow */
+
+import makeTemp from './_temp';
+import * as fs from '../src/util/fs.js';
+
+const path = require('path');
+const exec = require('child_process').exec;
+
+const fixturesLoc = path.join(__dirname, './fixtures/lifecycle-scripts');
+const yarnBin = path.join(__dirname, '../bin/yarn.js');
+
+async function execCommand(cmd: string, packageName: string): Promise<string> {
+  const srcPackageDir = path.join(fixturesLoc, packageName);
+  const packageDir = await makeTemp(packageName);
+
+  await fs.copy(srcPackageDir, packageDir);
+
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    exec(`node ${yarnBin} ${cmd}`, {cwd:packageDir}, (err, stdout) => {
+      if (err) {
+        reject(err);
+      } else {
+        resolve(stdout.toString());
+      }
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+test('should expose `npm_config_argv` environment variable to lifecycle scripts for back compatibility with npm (#684)',
+async () => {
+  let stdout = await execCommand('install', 'npm_config_argv_env_vars');
+  expect(stdout).toContain('##install##');
+
+  stdout = await execCommand('', 'npm_config_argv_env_vars');
+  expect(stdout).toContain('##install##');
+
+  stdout = await execCommand('test', 'npm_config_argv_env_vars');
+  expect(stdout).toContain('##test##');
+});
diff --git a/src/cli/index.js b/src/cli/index.js
index 6b13a508f2..c51afb95b6 100644
--- a/src/cli/index.js
+++ b/src/cli/index.js
@@ -328,6 +328,7 @@ config.init({
   ignoreEngines: commander.ignoreEngines,
   offline: commander.preferOffline || commander.offline,
   looseSemver: !commander.strictSemver,
+  commandName,
 }).then(() => {
   const exit = () => {
     process.exit(0);
diff --git a/src/config.js b/src/config.js
index 8eb9d75762..5d036d197c 100644
--- a/src/config.js
+++ b/src/config.js
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ export type ConfigOptions = {
 
   // Loosely compare semver for invalid cases like "0.01.0"
   looseSemver?: ?boolean,
+  commandName?: ?string
 };
 
 type PackageMetadata = {
@@ -115,6 +116,9 @@ export default class Config {
     [key: string]: ?Promise<any>
   };
 
+  //
+  commandName: string;
+
   /**
    * Execute a promise produced by factory if it doesn't exist in our cache with
    * the associated key.
@@ -194,6 +198,8 @@ export default class Config {
 
     this.looseSemver = opts.looseSemver == undefined ? true : opts.looseSemver;
 
+    this.commandName = opts.commandName || '';
+
     this.preferOffline = !!opts.preferOffline;
     this.modulesFolder = opts.modulesFolder;
     this.globalFolder = opts.globalFolder || constants.GLOBAL_MODULE_DIRECTORY;
diff --git a/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js b/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js
index bc1109903b..3098886dc1 100644
--- a/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js
+++ b/src/util/execute-lifecycle-script.js
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ async function makeEnv(stage: string, cwd: string, config: Config): {
   env.npm_node_execpath = env.NODE || process.execPath;
   env.npm_execpath = path.join(__dirname, '..', '..', 'bin', 'yarn.js');
 
+  // Note: npm_config_argv environment variable contains output of nopt - command-line
+  // parser used by npm. Since we use other parser, we just roughly emulate it's output. (See: #684)
+  env.npm_config_argv = JSON.stringify({remain:[], cooked: [config.commandName], original: [config.commandName]});
+
   // add npm_package_*
   const manifest = await config.readManifest(cwd);
   const queue = [['', manifest]];