pnpm 11.18.0

pnpm 11.18.0 has been released — the latest stable version of the fast, disk-efficient package manager for JavaScript lands with key improvements to the self-update workflow and GitHub Actions integration.

What Changed in pnpm 11.18.0

The headline change in this release is a behavioral fix for pnpm self-update. Previously, running self-update inside a workspace that set a minimumReleaseAge in pnpm-workspace.yaml would fail — the project-level configuration leaked into the update command, preventing pnpm from upgrading itself. In 11.18.0, the self-update command now completely ignores the workspace policy. The cooldown is governed only by the built-in default, your global config, a PNPM_CONFIG_* environment variable, or a command-line flag.

This separation means your repository can no longer inadvertently block updates to the tool itself, nor can a malicious workspace waive the safety cooldown

Interactive Self-Update Prompt

When self-update refuses a version that is younger than the cutoff, an interactive terminal session now offers to proceed with the update anyway. Non-interactive runs — including CI pipelines — continue to fail cleanly. The system never prompts on a CI runner, even if a TTY is attached.

GitHub Actions Dependency Checks Are Now Opt-In

A significant UX change: neither pnpm outdated nor pnpm update will read workflow files to check for GitHub Actions dependencies unless you explicitly opt in. Pass --include-github-actions on the command line, or set update.githubActions to true in pnpm-workspace.yaml. This avoids failures in environments where pnpm cannot reach GitHub (enterprise servers, custom certificate authorities, or offline networks).

Minor Fixes

• The Workspace column in pnpm update --interactive now correctly falls back to the project path when its name field contains only whitespace — matching the existing behavior for missing or empty names.
• Several internal dependency bumps and stability improvements.

pnpm 11.18.0 is available now via npm (npm install -g pnpm), Homebrew, or the official installation script. Run pnpm self-update to upgrade your existing installation.