Important

This action supports pnpm v12 and earlier.

For pnpm v11 and newer, pnpm/setup is also available. It downloads pnpm's self-contained release binary (no Node.js or npm required) and can install a JavaScript runtime (Node.js, Bun, or Deno) in the same step, replacing actions/setup-node when its feature set fits your workflow.

You can continue using pnpm/action-setup with actions/setup-node, including for pnpm v11 and v12. See Using pnpm/setup instead below if you want a single action to install pnpm and a JavaScript runtime.

pnpm/setup cannot install pnpm v11 on Intel macOS (darwin-x64), where no standalone pnpm v11 binary is published. On that platform, run actions/setup-node with Node.js 22.13 or newer before pnpm/action-setup, or upgrade to pnpm v12.

Setup pnpm

Install pnpm package manager.

⚠️ Upgrade from v2!

The v2 version of this action has stopped working with newer Node.js versions. Please, upgrade to the latest version to fix any issues.

Using pnpm/setup instead

pnpm/setup installs pnpm v11+ as a native standalone executable and can install Node.js, Bun, or Deno in the same step, so a typical workflow no longer needs actions/setup-node or an explicit pnpm install step:

steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v6

  # Before:
  # - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
  #   with:
  #     version: 10
  #     cache: true
  # - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  #   with:
  #     node-version: 22
  # - run: pnpm install

  # After:
  - uses: pnpm/setup@v1
    with:
      version: 11
      runtime: node@22
      cache: true

The version input can be omitted only when packageManager (or devEngines.packageManager) in package.json declares pnpm v11 or newer; otherwise keep it explicit, since pnpm/setup requires pnpm v11+.

Input and output changes:

pnpm/action-setup	pnpm/setup	Notes
version	version	Must resolve to pnpm v11 or newer. As before, it can be omitted when packageManager (or devEngines.packageManager) is set in package.json.
dest	dest	Unchanged.
run_install	install	pnpm/setup runs pnpm install automatically when a package.json is present (install: true by default); set install: false to skip it. The object/array form (recursive, cwd, args) is not supported — run those commands in separate steps.
cache	cache	Unchanged.
cache_dependency_path	cache-dependency-path	Renamed to kebab-case.
package_json_file	package-json-file	Renamed to kebab-case.
standalone	removed	pnpm/setup always installs the standalone native executable.
n/a	runtime	New: installs Node.js, Bun, or Deno (e.g. node@22, bun@latest, deno@2), or reads devEngines.runtime from package.json.
n/a	token	New: GitHub token for release lookup; defaults to ${{ github.token }} and rarely needs to be set.
bin_dest (output)	bin-dest (output)	Renamed to kebab-case. New outputs runtime-name and runtime-version describe the installed runtime.

Inputs

version

Version of pnpm to install.

Optional when package.json declares pnpm in packageManager, or sets devEngines.packageManager.name to "pnpm" and provides devEngines.packageManager.version.

otherwise, this field is required It supports npm versioning scheme, it could be an exact version (such as 10.9.8), or a version range (such as 10, 10.x.x, 10.9.x, ^10.9.8, *, etc.), or latest.

dest

Optional Where to store pnpm files.

run_install

Optional (default: null) If specified, run pnpm install.

If run_install is either null or false, pnpm will not install any npm package.

If run_install is true, pnpm will install dependencies recursively.

If run_install is a YAML string representation of either an object or an array, pnpm will execute every install commands.

run_install.recursive

Optional (type: boolean, default: false) Whether to use pnpm recursive install.

run_install.cwd

Optional (type: string) Working directory when run pnpm [recursive] install.

run_install.args

Optional (type: string[]) Additional arguments after pnpm [recursive] install, e.g. [--ignore-scripts, --strict-peer-dependencies].

cache

Optional (type: boolean, default: false) Whether to cache the pnpm store directory.

cache_dependency_path

Optional (type: string, default: pnpm-lock.yaml) File path to the pnpm lockfile, whose contents hash will be used as a cache key. Accepts multiple paths delimited by newlines.

package_json_file

Optional (type: string, default: package.json) File path to the package.json/package.yaml to read packageManager or devEngines.packageManager configuration.

standalone

Optional (type: boolean, default: false) For pnpm v11 and earlier, install @pnpm/exe, enabling pnpm to run without Node.js.

For pnpm v12, this input has no effect because the plain pnpm package already installs a standalone native executable.

Outputs

dest

Expanded path of inputs#dest.

bin_dest

Location of pnpm and pnpx command.

Usage example

Install only pnpm without packageManager

This works when the repo either doesn't have a package.json or has a package.json but it doesn't specify packageManager or devEngines.packageManager.

on:
  - push
  - pull_request

jobs:
  install:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
        with:
          version: 10

Install only pnpm with packageManager

Omit version input to use the version in the packageManager or devEngines.packageManager field in the package.json.

on:
  - push
  - pull_request

jobs:
  install:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6

Install pnpm and a few npm packages

on:
  - push
  - pull_request

jobs:
  install:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
        with:
          version: 10
          run_install: |
            - recursive: true
              args: [--strict-peer-dependencies]
            - args: [--global, gulp, prettier, typescript]

Use cache to reduce installation time

on:
  - push
  - pull_request

jobs:
  cache-and-install:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
        name: Install pnpm
        with:
          version: 10
          cache: true

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pnpm install

Note: You don't need to run pnpm store prune at the end; post-action has already taken care of that.

Cache dependencies from multiple lockfiles

on:
  - push
  - pull_request

jobs:
  cache-and-install-multiple:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v6

      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v6
        with:
          version: 10
          cache: true
          cache_dependency_path: |
            one/pnpm-lock.yaml
            two/pnpm-lock.yaml
          run_install: |
            - cwd: one
            - cwd: two

Notes

This action does not set up Node.js. Use actions/setup-node yourself. As an alternative for pnpm v11 or newer, pnpm/setup can install pnpm and Node.js in a single step.

License

MIT © Hoàng Văn Khải