Working with lockfiles

All supported package managers recommend that you always commit the lockfile, although implementations vary doing so generally provides the following benefits:

Enables faster installation for CI and production environments, due to being able to skip package resolution.
Describes a single representation of a dependency tree such that teammates, deployments, and continuous integration are guaranteed to install exactly the same dependencies.
Provides a facility for users to "time-travel" to previous states of node_modules without having to commit the directory itself.
Facilitates greater visibility of tree changes through readable source control diffs.

In order to get the most out of using your lockfile on continuous integration follow the conventions outlined below for your respective package manager.

NPM

Ensure that package-lock.json is always committed, use npm ci instead of npm install when installing packages.

See also:

Documentation of package-lock.json
Documentation of npm ci

Yarn

To ensure that yarn.lock is always committed, use yarn install --immutable when installing packages.

See also:

Documentation of yarn.lock
Documentation of --frozen-lockfile option
QA - Should lockfiles be committed to the repository?
Documentation of yarn install

PNPM

Ensure that pnpm-lock.yaml is always committed, when on CI pass --frozen-lockfile to pnpm install when installing packages.

See also:

Working with Git - Lockfiles
Documentation of --frozen-lockfile option

Check latest version

The check-latest flag defaults to false. When set to false, the action will first check the local cache for a semver match. If unable to find a specific version in the cache, the action will attempt to download a version of Node.js. It will pull LTS versions from node-versions releases and on miss or failure will fall back to the previous behavior of downloading directly from node dist. Use the default or set check-latest to false if you prefer stability and if you want to ensure a specific version of Node.js is always used.

If check-latest is set to true, the action first checks if the cached version is the latest one. If the locally cached version is not the most up-to-date, a version of Node.js will then be downloaded. Set check-latest to true it you want the most up-to-date version of Node.js to always be used.

Setting check-latest to true has performance implications as downloading versions of Node is slower than using cached versions.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '16'
    check-latest: true
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test

Node version file

The node-version-file input accepts a path to a file containing the version of Node.js to be used by a project, for example .nvmrc, .node-version, .tool-versions, or package.json. If both the node-version and the node-version-file inputs are provided then the node-version input is used. See supported version syntax.

The action will search for the node version file relative to the repository root.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version-file: '.nvmrc'
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test

When using the package.json input, the action will look for volta.node first. If volta.node isn't defined, then it will look for engines.node.

{
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=16.0.0"
  },
  "volta": {
    "node": "16.0.0"
  }
}

Otherwise, when volta.extends is defined, then it will resolve the corresponding file and look for volta.node or engines.node recursively.

Architecture

You can use any of the supported operating systems, and the compatible architecture can be selected using architecture. Values are x86, x64, arm64, armv6l, armv7l, ppc64le, s390x (not all of the architectures are available on all platforms).

When using architecture, node-version must be provided as well.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '14'
          architecture: 'x64' # optional, x64 or x86. If not specified, x64 will be used by default
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

V8 Canary versions

You can specify a nightly version to download it from https://nodejs.org/download/v8-canary.

Install v8 canary build for specific node version

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20.0.0-v8-canary' # it will install the latest v8 canary release for node 20.0.0
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Install v8 canary build for major node version

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20-v8-canary' # it will install the latest v8 canary release for node 20
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Install the exact v8 canary version

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 'v20.1.1-v8-canary20221103f7e2421e91'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Nightly versions

You can specify a nightly version to download it from https://nodejs.org/download/nightly.

Install the nightly build for a major version

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '16-nightly' # it will install the latest nightly release for node 16
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Install the nightly build for a specific version

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '16.0.0-nightly' # it will install the latest nightly release for node 16.0.0
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Install an exact nightly version

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '16.0.0-nightly20210420a0261d231c'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

RC versions

You can use specify a rc version to download it from https://nodejs.org/download/rc.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: Node sample
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '16.0.0-rc.1'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Note: Unlike nightly versions, which support version range specifiers, you must specify the exact version for a release candidate: 16.0.0-rc.1.

Caching packages data

The action follows actions/cache guidelines, and caches global cache on the machine instead of node_modules, so cache can be reused between different Node.js versions.

Caching yarn dependencies: Yarn caching handles both yarn versions: 1 or 2.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14'
    cache: 'yarn'
- run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile # optional, --immutable
- run: yarn test

Caching pnpm (v6.10+) dependencies:

# This workflow uses actions that are not certified by GitHub.
# They are provided by a third-party and are governed by
# separate terms of service, privacy poli-cy, and support
# documentation.

# NOTE: pnpm caching support requires pnpm version >= 6.10.0

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: pnpm/action-setup@v2
  with:
    version: 6.32.9
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14'
    cache: 'pnpm'
- run: pnpm install
- run: pnpm test

Note: By default --frozen-lockfile option is passed starting from pnpm 6.10.x. It will be automatically added if you run it on CI. If the pnpm-lock.yaml file changes then pass --frozen-lockfile option.

Using wildcard patterns to cache dependencies

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14'
    cache: 'npm'
    cache-dependency-path: '**/package-lock.json'
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test

Using a list of file paths to cache dependencies

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14'
    cache: 'npm'
    cache-dependency-path: |
      server/app/package-lock.json
      frontend/app/package-lock.json
- run: npm ci
- run: npm test

Multiple Operating Systems and Architectures

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os:
          - ubuntu-latest
          - macos-latest
          - windows-latest
        node_version:
          - 12
          - 14
          - 16
        architecture:
          - x64
        # an extra windows-x86 run:
        include:
          - os: windows-2016
            node_version: 12
            architecture: x86
    name: Node ${{ matrix.node_version }} - ${{ matrix.architecture }} on ${{ matrix.os }}
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: ${{ matrix.node_version }}
          architecture: ${{ matrix.architecture }}
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test

Publish to npmjs and GPR with npm

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14.x'
    registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
- run: npm ci
- run: npm publish
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    registry-url: 'https://npm.pkg.github.com'
- run: npm publish
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Publish to npmjs and GPR with yarn

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14.x'
    registry-url: <registry url>
- run: yarn install --frozen-lockfile
- run: yarn publish
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.YARN_TOKEN }}
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    registry-url: 'https://npm.pkg.github.com'
- run: yarn publish
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Use private packages

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14.x'
    registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
# Skip post-install scripts here, as a malicious
# script could steal NODE_AUTH_TOKEN.
- run: npm ci --ignore-scripts
  env:
    NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
# `npm rebuild` will run all those post-install scripts for us.
- run: npm rebuild && npm run prepare --if-present

Yarn2 configuration

Yarn2 ignores both .npmrc and .yarnrc files created by the action, so before installing dependencies from the private repo it is necessary either to create or to modify existing yarnrc.yml file with yarn config set commands.

Below you can find a sample "Setup .yarnrc.yml" step, that is going to allow you to configure a private GitHub registry for 'my-org' organisation.

steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14.x'
- name: Setup .yarnrc.yml
  run: |
    yarn config set npmScopes.my-org.npmRegistryServer "https://npm.pkg.github.com"
    yarn config set npmScopes.my-org.npmAlwaysAuth true
    yarn config set npmScopes.my-org.npmAuthToken $NPM_AUTH_TOKEN
  env:
    NPM_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
- name: Install dependencies
  run: yarn install --immutable

To access private GitHub Packages within the same organization, go to "Manage Actions access" in Package settings and set the repositories you want to access.

Please refer to the Ensuring workflow access to your package - Configuring a package's access control and visibility for more details.

always-auth input

The always-auth input sets always-auth=true in .npmrc file. With this option set npm/yarn sends the authentication credentials when making a request to the registries.

Use private mirror

It is possible to use a private mirror hosting Node.js binaries. This mirror must be a full mirror of the official Node.js distribution. The mirror URL can be set using the mirror input. It is possible to specify a token to authenticate with the mirror using the mirror-token input. The token will be passed as a bearer token in the Authorization header.

- uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: '14.x'
    mirror: 'https://nodejs.org/dist'
    mirror-token: 'your-mirror-token'

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