Specify npm 11.* in engines to suppress version upgrade notices#404
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schneems wants to merge 1 commit into
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Specify npm 11.* in engines to suppress version upgrade notices#404schneems wants to merge 1 commit into
schneems wants to merge 1 commit into
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Without an explicit npm version in engines, Heroku uses a default that lags behind the latest release. This causes npm to print "New minor version of npm available!" notices during every build, cluttering the getting started tutorial output.
schneems
commented
Jun 1, 2026
| "engines": { | ||
| "node": "20.x || 22.x || 24.x" | ||
| "node": "20.x || 22.x || 24.x", | ||
| "npm": "11.*" |
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❯ /pr-review-toolkit:review-pr https://github.com/heroku/nodejs-getting-started/pull/404
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Suggestions (1)
- Version range specificity: "npm": "11.*" pins to npm 11.x. When a future Node major (e.g., 26.x) ships with npm 12+, this constraint will force the
buildpack to downgrade npm. This is fine for a getting-started template (it'll get updated), but worth noting in a comment or the PR description that this
will need a bump alongside any future Node major addition. (Already implicitly addressed by the PR description's context.)
Strengths
- Well-motivated: The PR body clearly explains the problem (5 noisy upgrade notices per tutorial build) and the mechanism (buildpack resolves + installs
latest 11.x).
- Minimal change: Only touches what's needed — no scope creep.
- Correct JSON syntax: Trailing comma properly added to the preceding line.
- Compatible range: npm 11 supports Node >= 20, which aligns with all listed engine versions (20.x, 22.x, 24.x).
Recommended Action
Ship it. This is a clean, low-risk fix that improves the developer experience for anyone following the getting-started tutorial.
colincasey
approved these changes
Jun 2, 2026
| "engines": { | ||
| "node": "20.x || 22.x || 24.x" | ||
| "node": "20.x || 22.x || 24.x", | ||
| "npm": "11.*" |
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To be more consistent with how we tend to document and use a major version range specifier:
Suggested change
| "npm": "11.*" | |
| "npm": "11.x" |
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Node 24.16.0 bundles npm 11.13.0 but npm 11.16.0 has since been released. Since the buildpack uses whatever npm ships with the Node binary (there's no buildpack-level default to update), npm prints upgrade notices on every invocation during the build:
This block appears 5 times in the generated getting started tutorial (twice per deploy during install + prune, across 2 deploys + the db provision step).
Adding
"npm": "11.*"to engines tells the buildpack to resolve and install the latest 11.x, which eliminates the notices.