Install npm modules automatically for node actions about javascript-action

[bryanmacfarlane]

You're referencing master which is the coding branch. You should reference a distribution branch. The distribution branch contains a fully self contained set of code.

https://github.com/actions/toolkit/blob/master/docs/action-versioning.md

This template and walkthrough has you checking in production dependencies.

The runner downloads the files at the location and ref and runs it. That's it.

In the example above ^^ you're referencing master which is the coding branch and doesn't have production runtime dependencies.

npm install is a dev build time action. distributions are self contained.

covered in readme walthrough: https://github.com/actions/javascript-action#publish-to-a-distribution-branch

[lannonbr]

Another solution to not push node_modules into git is to use a bundler like webpack, parcel, etc

[wesleytodd]

Ok, thanks I was able to reporduce:

https://github.com/wesleytodd/actions-testing/commit/7b6d9d97d9298bf57b07bdaab2f2c0956d11e85b/checks

[bryanmacfarlane]

I will write up a public document soon on the toolkit repo with the GPR proposal which we will start soon ...

[fabiankaegy]

just ran into the same thing and agree that this should be handled by the platform :)

[wesleytodd]

https://github.com/wesleytodd/actions-testing/commit/73159469ab560d08f64e59a61fbe64d65764057a/checks

I used the template, and then pushed a commit, the action ran fine. Can you all who are seeing this issue provide more context?

[danielkatz]

https://github.com/wesleytodd/actions-testing/commit/73159469ab560d08f64e59a61fbe64d65764057a/checks

I used the template, and then pushed a commit, the action ran fine. Can you all who are seeing this issue provide more context?

Since your action is in the same repo as the workflow, you can run npm ci on your action. This approach isn't applicable for published public actions.

[danielkatz]

Another solution to not push node_modules into git is to use a bundler like webpack, parcel, etc

The same problem, if i'll use a bundler, i'll have to publish the bundled code to the repo.

[wesleytodd]

https://github.com/wesleytodd/actions-testing/commit/e0ca2a86035790823447e1288f722c1908b762e5/checks

This run was against this template. And it also worked.

[danielkatz]

https://github.com/wesleytodd/actions-testing/commit/e0ca2a86035790823447e1288f722c1908b762e5/checks

This run was against this template. And it also worked.

You as a user of an action can run npm ci to make it work. But as a publisher of an action, you can't run npm ci on your action because of syntax limitations, so you have to rely on the user to run it for you, which isn't the best UX...

[bryanmacfarlane]

The requirement is to be able to reference the distribution to run by an immutable reference (sha) or ref.

We have an enhancement that we're targetting hopefully for later this year where a workflow can reference from GPR (packaging)

[bryanmacfarlane]

Until we get to GPR, we found a better mitigated solution. #5