Node.js Cookbook

Use mise to select Node.js and your package manager, then run the scripts and dependencies declared by the project.

Getting started with Node.js

To install Node.js in a directory, run:

mise use node

This installs the latest version of Node.js and creates a mise.toml file with the following content:

[tools]
node = "latest"

To install Node.js globally instead (for example, node v26), run:

mise use -g node@26

Add node modules binaries to the PATH

When you install Node.js packages listed in package.json, you typically need npx or the full path to run their binaries. For example:

mise exec -- npm install --save-dev eslint
eslint --version # doesn't work
npx eslint --version # works

With mise, you can add the node modules binaries to the PATH, which makes CLIs installed with npm available without npx.

[env]
_.path = ['{{config_root}}/node_modules/.bin']

Example:

mise exec -- npm install --save-dev eslint
mise exec -- eslint --version # works without shell activation

With shell activation, eslint --version also works directly.

Example Node.js Project

This recipe expects a package.json with start, lint, test, and build scripts, plus a committed package-lock.json. Keep ESLint, TypeScript, and test runners in the project's devDependencies, so npm's lockfile controls their versions alongside the packages they use.

[tools]
node = "24"

[env]
NODE_ENV = { default = "development" }

[tasks.install]
description = "Install the locked npm dependency tree"
alias = "i"
run = "npm ci"

[tasks.start]
description = "Start the development server"
alias = "s"
run = "npm run start"

[tasks.lint]
description = "Run the project's lint script"
alias = "l"
run = "npm run lint"

[tasks.test]
description = "Run the project's tests"
alias = "t"
run = "npm test"

[tasks.build]
description = "Build the project"
alias = "b"
run = "npm run build"

Run mise run install after cloning the repository, then mise run test or mise run start. npm scripts already put node_modules/.bin on PATH, so these tasks do not need a separate path directive. For a new project without a lockfile, run mise exec -- npm install once and commit the resulting lockfile.

Example with pnpm

This example uses pnpm as the package manager. Merge the following field into your existing package.json, which must also define a dev script:

{
  "devEngines": {
    "packageManager": {
      "name": "pnpm",
      "version": "10.15.0"
    }
  }
}

The install task is skipped when package.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, and mise.toml have not changed and node_modules/.pnpm/lock.yaml exists and is up to date.

[tools]
node = '24'

[settings]
# Read the pnpm version from package.json
idiomatic_version_file_enable_tools = ['pnpm']

[env]
_.path = ['{{config_root}}/node_modules/.bin']

[tasks.pnpm-install]
description = 'Installs dependencies with pnpm'
run = 'pnpm install'
sources = ['package.json', 'pnpm-lock.yaml', 'mise.toml']
outputs = ['node_modules/.pnpm/lock.yaml']

[tasks.dev]
description = 'Calls your dev script in `package.json`'
run = 'node --run dev'
depends = ['pnpm-install']

Run mise run dev to install the selected tools and prepare dependencies before starting the existing application:

• mise will install the correct version of Node.js
• mise will install the pnpm version declared in package.json
• pnpm install runs when its sources or outputs are stale, before node --run dev

The timestamp check does not verify every file in node_modules. If dependencies are missing or damaged, run mise run --force pnpm-install.

Replacing Corepack

mise can install and select npm, pnpm, and Yarn without Corepack. The simplest setup is to declare both Node.js and the package manager in mise.toml:

[tools]
node = '24'
pnpm = '10.15.0'

To keep package.json as the package-manager version source, enable its idiomatic version file support:

{
  "packageManager": "[email protected]+sha224.88208eb7c2e7de6ed534fa298248dee656723116995eda4b508fd0c9"
}

[tools]
node = '24'

[settings]
idiomatic_version_file_enable_tools = ['pnpm']

Run mise install to install the declared versions. With shell activation, mise's shims can also install a missing configured package manager when it is first invoked. This uses not_found_auto_install, which is enabled by default.

Corepack-style +sha1, +sha224, +sha256, +sha384, and +sha512 suffixes are verified against the exact package-manager artifact before installation. For npm, pnpm, and Yarn Classic this is the registry tarball; for modern Yarn it is Yarn's published CLI file. Without a checksum, mise uses the package manager's preferred registry backend (usually Aqua) and that backend's normal verification.

Enable each package manager that a repository may declare:

[settings]
idiomatic_version_file_enable_tools = ['npm', 'pnpm', 'yarn']

Unlike Corepack, mise does not supply a built-in "known good" package-manager version when a project declares none. Configure the version in mise.toml, package.json, or your global mise config instead.