sustainable-npm

A lightweight GitHub Action that sets sensible npm defaults to speed up installs and cut unnecessary energy use in CI.

• 🔒 dependency-free
• ⚛️ small size
• 💰 saves time & money
• 🌎 reduces carbon emissions
• pairs seamlessly with actions/setup-node and all active Node LTS versions

---

• Usage
• Inputs
• Breaking Changes
• Performance Benchmarks
• Real-World Performance
• Show Your Support

Usage

After setting up Node with actions/setup-node, add this step:

jobs:
  test:
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      - uses: lowlydba/sustainable-npm@v2

To override any defaults:

- uses: lowlydba/sustainable-npm@v2
  with:
    audit: 'true'
    fund: 'false'
    progress: 'false'
    save: 'false'
    update-notifier: 'false'
    loglevel: 'warn'

The npm configuration is only printed when debug logging is enabled (RUNNER_DEBUG == 'true').

Inputs

Input	Description	Allowed Values	Default
audit	Run a security audit after install.	'true' or 'false'	'false'
fund	Show funding messages.	'true' or 'false'	'false'
progress	Show a progress bar during npm operations.	'true' or 'false'	'false'
save	Automatically update package.json when installing packages.	'true' or 'false'	'false'
update-notifier	Check for npm updates after each command.	'true' or 'false'	'false'
prefer-offline	Use cached data without checking for staleness. Uncached packages are still fetched.	'true' or 'false'	'true'
loglevel	npm log level.	silent, error, warn, http, info, verbose, silly	'error'

Breaking Changes

v2.0.0

The "Print npm configs" step now only runs when debug logging is enabled (RUNNER_DEBUG == 'true'). To re-enable it, set that variable in your workflow.

Performance Benchmarks

Benchmarks via hyperfine, 20 runs with 3 warmups:

$ hyperfine 'npm install' 'npm install --audit=false --fund=false --loglevel=error --update-notifier=false --progress=false' --ignore-failure --runs 20 --warmup 3

Benchmark 1: npm install
  Time (mean ± σ):      2.172 s ±  0.097 s    [User: 1.958 s, System: 0.750 s]
  Range (min … max):    2.017 s …  2.347 s    20 runs

Benchmark 2: npm install --audit=false --fund=false --loglevel=error --update-notifier=false --progress=false
  Time (mean ± σ):      1.849 s ±  0.107 s    [User: 1.819 s, System: 0.668 s]
  Range (min … max):    1.626 s …  2.046 s    20 runs

Summary
  npm install --audit=false --fund=false --loglevel=error --update-notifier=false --progress=false ran
    1.17 ± 0.09 times faster than npm install

Around a 10-20% reduction in install time on projects with ~500 dependencies. Packages were pre-downloaded to keep network conditions out of the equation.

Note

Your actual gains will vary based on project size, network, and OS.

Real-World Performance

• rvandernoort details results using EcoCI in #11

Show Your Support

Add a badge to your repo:

[![sustainable-npm](https://img.shields.io/badge/sustainable--npm-🌱-blue?style=flat)](https://github.com/lowlysre/sustainable-npm)