When will be able to specify runs.using: node18 in action.yml?

[ezzatron]

The default version of Node.js has apparently been 18.x since 2023-02-13, Node.js 16.x will be end of life in 3 months on 2023-09-11, and @octokit/action has recently been updated to require "node": ">= 18". But as of today, we still can't specify node18 as the runtime in action.yml metadata runs.using field.

If you do specify something like this:

# action.yml
runs:
  using: node18
  main: dist/main.js

The action will fail with the following message:

Error: System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. (Parameter ''using: node18' is not supported, use 'docker', 'node12' or 'node16' instead.')
   at GitHub.Runner.Worker.ActionManifestManager.ConvertRuns(IExecutionContext executionContext, TemplateContext templateContext, TemplateToken inputsToken, String fileRelativePath, MappingToken outputs)
   at GitHub.Runner.Worker.ActionManifestManager.Load(IExecutionContext executionContext, String manifestFile)

This is a pretty poor experience.

I get that Node.js 16.x is not technically end-of-life yet, and is still receiving security releases. But I think I speak on behalf of everyone who develops actions when I say that we need a decent window of time to test our actions with a new runtime. We don't want to be forced into doing our upgrades with such a small time window before end-of-life happens.

Could we please get an answer as to when we will be able to actually use Node.js 18.x? And can we have a discussion about reducing the lead time on new Node.js LTS versions in GitHub Actions, so that this situation doesn't repeat itself for Node.js 20.x?

See also #5429.

[vpolikarpov-akvelon]

Hi @ezzatron. Unfortunately, it's out of our control.
Node.js versions that may be used to execute custom actions are enforced by runner itself. I believe it would be better to ask there.

I also found this discussion: actions/runner#2619. I hope this helps.

[ezzatron]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, appreciate it 👍

[ezzatron]

For anyone else looking, there's also a discussion at https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/53217 with the most recent news being a comment on 2023-05-20 by @fhammerl:

With Node16 security updates coming to an end this October, we're of course planning on embedding a new Node.js version, but I can't give an exact date as of today.

It's also being speculated that we might get a bump straight from 16.x to 20.x.