setup-npm-auth

A CLI and GitHub Action to discover configured npm registries and write authentication tokens to the npm user config. Supports default, publish, and scoped registries. Designed for use in CI/CD pipelines and local development.

Features

• Discovers all configured npm registries (default, publishConfig, and @scope registries)
• Writes authentication tokens to the correct npm config location
• Supports dry-run and verbose modes
• Usable as a CLI or as a declarative GitHub Action

Usage

CLI

Install globally or use via npx:

npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth --include default --include publish=PUBLISH_TOKEN --include @myscope=SCOPE_TOKEN

Options

• --include <scope>[=<ENV_VAR>]
  Include a registry. Repeatable. Grammar: default, publish, or @scope[=ENV_VAR]. Defaults to NODE_AUTH_TOKEN if ENV_VAR is omitted.
• -L, --location <global|project|user>
  Specify npm config location. Defaults to user-level config.
• --dry-run
  Show what would be configured, but do not write anything.
• -v, --verbose
  Show detailed output.

Examples

# Set auth for the default registry using NODE_AUTH_TOKEN
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=foo npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth

# Set auth for default and publishConfig.registry using the same token from NODE_AUTH_TOKEN
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=foo PUBLISH_TOKEN=bar npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth --include default --include publish

# Set auth for default and publishConfig.registry using different env vars
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=foo PUBLISH_TOKEN=bar npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth --include default --include publish=PUBLISH_TOKEN

# Set auth for a scoped registry
SCOPE_TOKEN=abc npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth --include @myscope=SCOPE_TOKEN

# Use a specific npm config location (e.g. user)
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=foo npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth -L user

# Show what would be configured, but do not write anything
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=foo npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth --dry-run

# Show planned configuration details before execution
NODE_AUTH_TOKEN=foo npx @rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth --verbose

GitHub Action

You can use this tool as a declarative GitHub Action in your workflows:

- uses: rb-mwindh/setup-npm-auth@main
  with:
    verbose: 'true'
    includes: |
      default
      publish=PUBLISH_TOKEN
      @myscope=SCOPE_TOKEN

Action Inputs

• includes: Registries to include (e.g. default, publish, @scope=ENV)
• location: npm config location (user, global, project)
• dry-run: Show what would be done, but do not execute
• verbose: Show more output

Development

Building the Action

This action uses @vercel/ncc to bundle all runtime dependencies into a single file. The bundled output is committed to the repository in the dist/ directory because GitHub Actions require all code and dependencies to be present in the repository.

To build the action after making changes:

npm ci
npm run build

The dist/ directory is intentionally committed to version control, as this is required for JavaScript GitHub Actions to work on self-hosted runners without requiring npm install.

License

MIT © Markus Windhager