Added support for JavaScript runtime installation​

Declare Node.js, Deno, or Bun in devEngines.runtime (inside package.json) and let pnpm download and pin it automatically.

Usage example:

{
  "devEngines": {
    "runtime": {
      "name": "node",
      "version": "^24.4.0",
      "onFail": "download" // we only support the "download" value for now
    }
  }
}

How it works:

1. pnpm install resolves your specified range to the latest matching runtime version.
2. The exact version (and checksum) is saved in the lockfile.
3. Scripts use the local runtime, ensuring consistency across environments.

Why this is better:

1. This new setting supports also Deno and Bun (vs. our Node-only settings useNodeVersion and executionEnv.nodeVersion)
2. Supports version ranges (not just a fixed version).
3. The resolved version is stored in the pnpm lockfile, along with an integrity checksum for future validation of the Node.js content's validity.
4. It can be used on any workspace project (like executionEnv.nodeVersion). So, different projects in a workspace can use different runtimes.
5. For now devEngines.runtime setting will install the runtime locally, which we will improve in future versions of pnpm by using a shared location on the computer.

Related PR: #9755.

Other new features​

• Added --cpu, --libc, and --os to pnpm install, pnpm add, and pnpm dlx to customize supportedArchitectures via the CLI #7510.

Bug Fixes​

• Fix a bug in which pnpm add downloads packages whose libc differ from pnpm.supportedArchitectures.libc.
• The integrities of the downloaded Node.js artifacts are verified #9750.
• Allow dlx to parse CLI flags and options between the dlx command and the command to run or between the dlx command and -- #9719.
• pnpm install --prod should removing hoisted dev dependencies #9782.
• Fix an edge case bug causing local tarballs to not re-link into the virtual store. This bug would happen when changing the contents of the tarball without renaming the file and running a filtered install.
• Fix a bug causing pnpm install to incorrectly assume the lockfile is up to date after changing a local tarball that has peers dependencies.

It is the end of the year. A really hard year. As you may know, I live in Ukraine, so due to Russia's war against us, it was harder to lead this project than in previous years. Nevertheless, it was a good year for pnpm. We've got a lot of new users, contributors, and we have implemented many great features.

(the above illustration was generated by Midjourney. The tiger symolizes the year of the tiger)

It is the end of the year and it was a good year for pnpm, so let's see how it went.

There are many ways to create a node_modules directory. Your goal must be to create the most strict one but if that is not possible, there are options to make a loose node_modules as well.

New users of pnpm frequently ask me about the weird structure of node_modules that pnpm creates. Why is it not flat? Where are all the sub-dependencies?