Upgrade GitHub Actions for Node 24 compatibility

[salmanmkc]

Warning

You may currently be seeing a warning like this in your workflow runs:

Node.js 20 actions are deprecated. The following actions are running on Node.js 20
and may not work as expected: actions/checkout@v4, actions/upload-artifact@v4, actions/download-artifact@v4.
Actions will be forced to run with Node.js 24 by default starting June 2nd, 2026.
Please check if updated versions of these actions are available that support Node.js 24.
To opt into Node.js 24 now, set the FORCE_JAVASCRIPT_ACTIONS_TO_NODE24=true environment
variable on the runner or in your workflow file. Once Node.js 24 becomes the default, you
can temporarily opt out by setting ACTIONS_ALLOW_USE_UNSECURE_NODE_VERSION=true.
For more information see: https://github.blog/changelog/2025-09-19-deprecation-of-node-20-on-github-actions-runners/

The exact actions listed will vary per workflow.

Upgrades GitHub Actions to versions that support Node 24, since Node 20 is reaching EOL in April 2026.

Changes

Action	Old Version(s)	New Version	Release	Files
actions/checkout	v4	v6	Release	release.yml
actions/download-artifact	v4	v8	Release	release.yml
actions/setup-python	v5	v6	Release	release.yml
actions/upload-artifact	v4	v7	Release	release.yml

Context

Per GitHub's announcement, Node 20 is being deprecated and runners will default to Node 24 starting June 2nd, 2026.

• Node 20 EOL: April 2026
• Node 24 becomes default: June 2nd, 2026

Breaking Changes

• actions/checkout (v4 → v6): Major version upgrade — review the release notes for breaking changes
• actions/setup-python (v5 → v6): Major version upgrade — review the release notes for breaking changes
• actions/upload-artifact (v4 → v7): Major version upgrade — review the release notes for breaking changes
• actions/download-artifact (v4 → v8): Major version upgrade — review the release notes for breaking changes

Notes

Worth running the workflows on a branch before merging to make sure everything still works.

[github-actions]

All contributors have signed the CLA ✍️ ✅
_{Posted by the CLA Assistant Lite bot.}

[salmanmkc]

I have read the CLA Document and I hereby sign the CLA

[salmanmkc]

recheck