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GitHub Action

NPM Publish

v2.2.2

NPM Publish

package

NPM Publish

Fast, easy publishing to NPM

Installation

Copy and paste the following snippet into your .yml file.

              

- name: NPM Publish

uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v2.2.2

Learn more about this action in JS-DevTools/npm-publish
Choose a version

Fast, easy publishing to NPM

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Publish your packages to npm automatically in GitHub Actions by updating the version number.

Features

  • 🧠 Smart
    Only publishes if the version number in package.json differs from the latest on npm.

  • 🛠 Configurable
    Customize the version-checking behavior, the registry URL, and path of your package.

  • 🔐 Secure
    Keeps your npm authentication token secret. Doesn't read from or write to ~/.npmrc.

  • Fast
    100% JavaScript (which is faster than Docker) and bundled to optimize loading time.

  • 📤 Outputs
    Exposes the old and new version numbers, and the type of change (major, minor, patch, etc.) as variables that you can use in your workflow.

Usage

This package can be used three different ways:

  • 🤖 A GitHub Action as part of your CI/CD process

  • 🧩 A function that you call in your JavaScript code

  • 🖥 A CLI that you run in your terminal

v2 Migration Guide

The v1 to v2 upgrade brought a few notable breaking changes. To migrate, make the following updates:

  • The type output is now an empty string instead of 'none' when no release occurs

      - run: echo "Version changed!"
    -   if: ${{ steps.publish.outputs.type != 'none' }}
    +   if: ${{ steps.publish.outputs.type }}
  • The --ignore-scripts option is now passed to npm publish as a security precaution. If you define any publish lifecycle scripts - prepublishOnly, prepack, prepare, postpack, publish, postpublish - run them explicitly or set the ignore-scripts input to false.

      with:
        token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
    +   ignore-scripts: false
  • The workflow's .npmrc file is no longer modified. If you have any workarounds to adjust for this misbehavior - for example, if you're using actions/setup-node to configure .npmrc - you should remove them.

      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '18'
          registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org/
    
      - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v1
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
    
      - name: Do some more stuff with npm
        run: npm whoami
        env:
    -     INPUT_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
    +     NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
  • The check-version and greater-version-only options have been removed and replaced with strategy.

    • Use strategy: all (default) to publish all versions that do not yet exist in the registry.
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
      -   check-version: true
      -   greater-version-only: false
      +   strategy: all
    • Use strategy: upgrade to only publish versions that upgrade the selected tag.
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
      -   check-version: true
      -   greater-version-only: true
      +   strategy: upgrade
    • check-version: false has been removed. You may not need this action if you're not checking already published versions; you can npm directly, instead.
      - - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v1
      -   with:
      -     token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}
      -     check-version: false
      + - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      +   with:
      +     node-version: '18'
      +     registry-url: https://registry.npmjs.org/
      + - run: npm publish
      +   env:
      +     NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

See the change log for more details and other changes in the v2 release.

GitHub Action

To use the GitHub Action, you'll need to add it as a step in your workflow file. By default, the only thing you need to do is set the token parameter to your npm authentication token.

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: "18"
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v2
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

You can also publish to third-party registries. For example, to publish to the GitHub Package Registry, set token to secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN and registry to https://npm.pkg.github.com:

on:
  push:
    branches: main

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write # allow GITHUB_TOKEN to publish packages
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: "18"
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v2
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          registry: "https://npm.pkg.github.com"

Usage

You can set any or all of the following input parameters using with:

Name Type Default Description
token string required Authentication token to use with the configured registry.
registry¹ string https://registry.npmjs.org/ Registry URL to use.
package string Current working directory Path to a package directory, a package.json, or a packed .tgz to publish.
tag¹ string latest Distribution tag to publish to.
access¹ public, restricted npm defaults Whether the package should be publicly visible or restricted.
provenance¹ ² boolean false Run npm publish with the --provenance flag to add provenance statements.
strategy all, upgrade all Use all to publish all unique versions, upgrade for only semver upgrades.
ignore-scripts boolean true Run npm publish with the --ignore-scripts flag as a security precaution.
dry-run boolean false Run npm publish with the --dry-run flag to prevent publication.
  1. May be specified using publishConfig in package.json.
  2. Provenance requires npm >=9.5.0.

Output

npm-publish exposes some output variables, which you can use in later steps of your workflow. To access the output variables, you'll need to set an id for the npm-publish step.

steps:
  - id: publish
    uses: JS-DevTools/npm-publish@v2
    with:
      token: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

  - if: ${{ steps.publish.outputs.type }}
    run: echo "Version changed!"
Name Type Description
id string Package identifier of the release: ${name}@${version} or empty if no release.
type string Semver release type, initial if first release, different if other change, or empty if no release.
name string Name of the package.
version string Version of the package.
old-version string Previously published version on tag or empty if no previous version on tag.
tag string Distribution tag the package was published to.
access string Access level the package was published with, or default if scoped-package defaults were used.
registry string Registry the package was published to.
dry-run boolean Whether npm publish was run in "dry run" mode.

JavaScript API

To use npm-package in your JavaScript code, you'll need to install it using npm or other package manager of choice:

npm install --save-dev @jsdevtools/npm-publish

You can then import it and use it in your code like this:

import { npmPublish } from "@jsdevtools/npm-publish";

// Run npm-publish with all defaults
await npmPublish({ token: "YOUR_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN_HERE" });

Usage

As shown in the example above, you should pass an options object to the npmPublish function. In TypeScript, the Options interface is available as an import.

import type { Options } from "@jsdevtools/npm-publish";
Name Type Default Description
token string required Authentication token to use with the configured registry.
registry¹ string, URL https://registry.npmjs.org/ Registry URL to use.
package string Current working directory Path to a package directory, a package.json, or a packed .tgz to publish.
tag¹ string latest Distribution tag to publish to.
access¹ public, restricted npm defaults Whether the package should be publicly visible or restricted.
provenance¹ ² boolean false Run npm publish with the --provenance flag to add provenance statements.
strategy all, upgrade all Use all to publish all unique versions, upgrade for only semver upgrades.
ignoreScripts boolean true Run npm publish with the --ignore-scripts flag as a security precaution.
dryRun boolean false Run npm publish with the --dry-run flag to prevent publication.
logger object undefined Logging interface with debug, info, and error log methods.
temporaryDirectory string os.tmpdir() Temporary directory to hold a generated .npmrc file
  1. May be specified using publishConfig in package.json.
  2. Provenance requires npm >=9.5.0.

Output

The npmPublish() function returns a promise of a Results object. In TypeScript, the Results interface is available as an import.

import type { Results } from "@jsdevtools/npm-publish";
Name Type Description
id Optional string Package identifier of the release: ${name}@${version} or undefined if no release.
type Optional string Semver release type, initial if first release, different if other change, or undefined if no release.
name string Name of the package.
version string Version of the package.
oldVersion Optional string Previously published version on tag or undefined if no previous version.
tag string Distribution tag that the package was published to.
access Optional string Access level the package was published with, or undefined if scoped-package defaults were used.
registry URL Registry the package was published to.
dryRun boolean Whether npm publish was run in "dry run" mode.

Command Line Interface

You can also use npm-publish as a command-line tool in your terminal.

npm install --save-dev @jsdevtools/npm-publish

You can then use it in your terminal or in npm run scripts.

npx npm-publish --token YOUR_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN_HERE

You can customize your call with options to change the registry, package, etc.

npx npm-publish --token YOUR_NPM_AUTH_TOKEN_HERE --registry http://example.com ./path/to/package

Options

Run npm-publish --help to see the full list of options available.

Usage:

  npm-publish <options> [package]

Arguments:

  package                 The path to the package to publish.
                          May be a directory, package.json, or .tgz file.
                          Defaults to the package in the current directory.

Options:

  --token <token>         (Required) npm authentication token.

  --registry <url>        Registry to read from and write to.
                          Defaults to "https://registry.npmjs.org/".

  --tag <tag>             The distribution tag to check against and publish to.
                          Defaults to "latest".

  --access <access>       Package access, may be "public" or "restricted".
                          See npm documentation for details.

  --provenance            Publish with provenance statements.
                          See npm documentation for details.

  --strategy <strategy>   Publish strategy, may be "all" or "upgrade".
                          Defaults to "all", see documentation for details.

  --no-ignore-scripts     Allow lifecycle scripts, which are disabled by default
                          as a security precaution. Defaults to false.

  --dry-run               Do not actually publish anything.
  --quiet                 Only print errors.
  --debug                 Print debug logs.

  -v, --version           Print the version number.
  -h, --help              Show usage text.

Examples:

  $ npm-publish --token abc123 ./my-package

License

npm-publish is 100% free and open-source, under the MIT license. Use it however you want.

This package is Treeware. If you use it in production, then we ask that you buy the world a tree to thank us for our work. By contributing to the Treeware forest you’ll be creating employment for local families and restoring wildlife habitats.

Big Thanks To

Thanks to these awesome companies for their support of Open Source developers ❤

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