Configure Node.js

Version updated for https://github.com/pwrdrvr/configure-nodejs to version v1.3.0.

  • This action is used across all versions by 2 repositories.

Action Type

This is a Composite action.

Go to the GitHub Marketplace to find the latest changes.

Action Summary

This GitHub Action automates the installation of Node.js, detects the package manager (npm, pnpm, or Yarn), enables Corepack when necessary, and restores the correct cache to optimize build times. It handles different cache scenarios efficiently by running cold installs only when absolutely necessary, reducing costs associated with cache misses during warm cache restoration.

What’s Changed

Fixes a dependency cache bug that could hand a job a node_modules built against a different Node.js ABI.

The fix

The cache key interpolated the node-version input verbatim. For a spec that can cross a major release — lts/*, latest, >=20 — that segment stayed constant while the runner image’s Node.js moved from one major to the next. Because npm and Yarn skip installation entirely on a cache hit, the restored tree was used as-is, so any compiled native addon in it had been built against a different NODE_MODULE_VERSION:

Error: The module '.../binding.node' was compiled against a different Node.js version

The cache key is now built from the Node.js major, which is exactly the ABI boundary: NODE_MODULE_VERSION changes with each major and is stable within one.

Affected: npm and Yarn projects using a node-version that can cross a major. Specs pinned within one major (24.x, 24.14.1, the 22.x default) were never at risk. pnpm reinstalls on every run, so it was not exposed either.

What you will notice

Every project takes one cold cache miss on upgrade. The key segment changes from the raw spec to the major, so existing entries no longer match. One rebuild, then back to normal.

lookup-only gates on floating specs now install Node.js even on a cache hit. A spec that can cross a major cannot be classified from its string, so actions/setup-node has to resolve it before the key exists. This costs those specs the restore-before-setup fast path — typically a second or two, since a floating spec resolves to a version already in the runner toolcache. Pinned specs, including the 22.x default, keep the fast path untouched and still skip Node.js installation entirely on a hit.

Gate and consumer keys now match on the major. A gate on 24.x and a consumer on 24.14.1 previously produced two different keys, so the gate warmed an entry nobody read. They now share one. A gate on 24.x and a consumer on 22.x still correctly do not.

Added

  • node-major output — the Node.js major the cache key was built from. Useful for asserting that a gate job and its consumers agree.

Also in this release

  • The README now explains the cache-priming gate job pattern the action is built around, including the fan-out and retry-trap failure modes it exists to prevent (#9).

Full changelog: https://github.com/pwrdrvr/configure-nodejs/compare/v1.2.0...v1.3.0