GitHub Actions pnpm/action-setup "No pnpm version is specified"

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

pnpm/action-setup needs a pnpm version from either its version input or the packageManager field in package.json. With neither set, recent versions of the action refuse to guess.

What this error means

A pnpm/action-setup step fails immediately stating that no pnpm version was specified, before any install runs.

Error: Multiple versions of pnpm specified:
  - no version is specified in the action config
  - no "packageManager" field in package.json

Diagnose it: is the job queued, or is the runner gone?

A job that never starts and a job whose runner disappeared mid-run look similar in the UI and have opposite causes. The first is a labelling or capacity problem, the second is the runner being killed, usually by memory pressure or a spot reclaim.

- name: Runner facts
  run: |
    echo "runner name: $RUNNER_NAME"
    echo "os/arch:     $RUNNER_OS/$RUNNER_ARCH"
    nproc; free -h; df -h /
    echo "labels this job asked for: ${{ toJSON(job) }}"

Common causes

No version input and no packageManager field

The action removed its implicit default, so omitting both inputs leaves it with nothing to install.

packageManager field missing or malformed

A packageManager value that is absent or not pnpm@x.y.z does not satisfy the version requirement.

How to fix it

Pin the pnpm version explicitly

1. Add version: to the pnpm/action-setup step, or
2. Add a packageManager field to package.json (e.g. "packageManager": "pnpm@9.12.0").
3. Keep setup-node cache: pnpm steps after pnpm is installed.

- uses: pnpm/action-setup@v4
  with:
    version: 9

The failures that are not your workflow

• Exit 137 is the kernel out-of-memory killer, not an application error. Check free -h above against your peak usage.
• Disk exhaustion presents as unrelated write errors deep in a build. GitHub-hosted runners ship roughly 14 GB of free space, which a Docker-heavy job can exhaust.
• A lost connection to the server on a self-hosted runner is usually the host being reclaimed or rebooted, not a network fault in your job.
• A job that starts and immediately fails with no step output normally failed during runner setup, before your workflow ran at all.

How to prevent it

• Set packageManager in package.json as the single source of the pnpm version.
• Order steps so pnpm install precedes any pnpm-cached setup-node step.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• GitHub Actions documentation
• Workflow syntax for GitHub Actions