●Change8

v11.0.0-alpha.0

Breaking Changes
📦 pnpmView on GitHub →
⚠ 12 breaking✨ 11 features🐛 1 fixes⚡ 2 deprecations🔧 6 symbols

Summary

pnpm 9 introduces pure ESM, JSON‑based config output, V8‑serialized store files, and drops Node.js v18/v19 support, requiring migration of config files, imports, and runtime versions.

⚠️ Breaking Changes

  • `pnpm config get` without `--json` now outputs JSON instead of INI formatted text; update scripts to parse JSON or use `--json` flag.
  • `pnpm config list` and `pnpm config get` (no argument) now hide auth‑related settings; adjust any tooling that relied on those values.
  • The package is now pure ESM; CommonJS `require` imports will fail and must be converted to `import`.
  • `pnpm` no longer loads non‑auth and non‑registry settings from rc files; move such settings to `pnpm-workspace.yaml`.
  • Support for Node.js v18 and v19 has been dropped; upgrade to Node.js >=20.
  • `pnpm config get <array>` now prints a JSON array; scripts expecting the previous format need to be updated.
  • The default `type` field in `package.json` created by `pnpm init` is now `module`; existing projects may need to set `type` manually if they rely on CommonJS.
  • Top‑level keys output by `pnpm config list` and `pnpm config get` are now camelCase (except keys starting with `@` or `//`); update any code that parses raw key names.
  • The standalone executable now requires glibc 2.27; older Linux distributions must upgrade glibc or use a different installation method.
  • `pnpm config list` now outputs a JSON object instead of INI formatted text; adjust consumers accordingly.
  • `pnpm config get` and `pnpm config list` no longer load non‑camelCase options from `pnpm-workspace.yaml`; rename such options to camelCase or move them elsewhere.
  • Store and cache JSON files have been replaced with V8‑serialized binary files, which cannot be deserialized by older Node.js versions; clear the cache when downgrading Node.

Migration Steps

  1. Update any scripts that parse the output of `pnpm config get` or `pnpm config list` to handle JSON instead of INI.
  2. Move non‑auth and non‑registry settings from `.npmrc` or other rc files into `pnpm-workspace.yaml`.
  3. Convert CommonJS imports of pnpm modules to ESM `import` statements.
  4. If you rely on auth‑related config values, use explicit flags or environment variables to expose them.
  5. Rename configuration keys to camelCase or adjust code that expects the original casing.
  6. Rename `.pnpmfile.js` to `.pnpmfile.mjs` if using ESM pnpmfiles.
  7. Clear the pnpm store/cache after downgrading Node.js to avoid binary incompatibility.
  8. Ensure the system glibc version is at least 2.27 when using the standalone executable.

✨ New Features

  • Added support for a global YAML config file `config.yaml` for pnpm‑specific settings.
  • Environment variables prefixed with `pnpm_config_` are now loaded into the configuration and override `pnpm-workspace.yaml` values.
  • Support for pnpmfiles written in ESM (`.pnpmfile.mjs`).
  • pnpm CLI is now bundled with a specific Node.js runtime version, making it independent of the globally installed Node.
  • Store and cache now use V8‑serialized binary files, improving read performance by ~23%.
  • The default `type` field for projects initialized with `pnpm init` is now `module`.
  • Top‑level configuration keys are presented in camelCase by default.
  • Auth‑related settings are hidden by default in `pnpm config list` and `pnpm config get` without arguments.
  • `pnpm config get` without `--json` now prints JSON for objects/arrays and raw primitives.
  • `pnpm config get <array>` prints a JSON array.
  • Standalone executable now enforces glibc 2.27 minimum.

🐛 Bug Fixes

  • Explicitly tell `npm` the path to the global `rc` config file.

🔧 Affected Symbols

pnpm config getpnpm config listpnpm initpnpm-workspace.yaml.pnpmfile.mjsstore/cache serialization

⚡ Deprecations

  • Node.js v18 and v19 support is deprecated and removed.
  • INI‑based rc files for pnpm‑specific settings are deprecated in favor of YAML config files.