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Corepack not adding packageManager field to package.json #560
Description
When using Homebrew to install Node.js, enabling Corepack, and then using Corepack to manage pnpm, Corepack does not add a packageManager field to my package.json. This field should be automatically added, but it is missing, requiring me to add it manually.
Setting the COREPACK_ENABLE_AUTO_PIN=1 in zshrc does not resolve the issue. Even after reinstalling Corepack and Node.js, the problem still exists.
Steps to Reproduce:
brew install node@20brew link --overwrite node@20corepack enablecorepack prepare pnpm@latest --activatepnpm setupmkdir testcd testpnpm initcorepack use pnpm@latestorpnpm install
Expected Behavior
Corepack should automatically add the packageManager field to package.json when using pnpm.
Actual Behavior
The packageManager field is not added, and setting COREPACK_ENABLE_AUTO_PIN=1 in ~/.zshrc does not fix the issue. Reinstalling Corepack and Node.js does not resolve the problem either.
Additional Information
Node.js v20.17.0
Corepack 0.29.3
pnpm 9.10.0
How can I set the environment variable to enable this functionality, and are there any other steps to resolve this issue?
Activity
aduh95 commentedon Sep 11, 2024
I suspect the
pnpmyou use is not provided by Corepack. What doescommand -v pnpmoutput on your machine?ProchaLu commentedon Sep 11, 2024
@aduh95 The output is
aduh95 commentedon Sep 11, 2024
Can you show the output of those commands if you set
DEBUG=corepackin your env?ProchaLu commentedon Sep 11, 2024
aduh95 commentedon Sep 11, 2024
Well it looks like you have a
packge.jsonin your $HOME, and I suppose that's where thepackageManagerfield is defined. Consider removing that file, it seems like a bad idea to have that.ProchaLu commentedon Sep 11, 2024
@aduh95 Thx! Removing the $HOME
package.jsonsolved the issue!ProchaLu commentedon Sep 11, 2024
@aduh95, thx for your time, but there is a question if the current directory has a
package.json, wouldn't a user expect that Corepack would change that one, and not one way further up in the tree?arcanis commentedon Sep 11, 2024
No, since in a workspace setup the
package.jsonthat defines the package manager is located at the top of the project tree.aduh95 commentedon Sep 11, 2024
In the case of a monorepo, you wouldn't want to define a
packageManagerper package, but rather at the project root.bojidar-bg commentedon Oct 20, 2025
Just ran into this myself with a
package.jsonin$HOME; would have appreciated if corepack didn't cross git repository boundaries when looking for the rootpackage.json.