Error: Unable to find Node version 'nightly' for platform linux and architecture x64.

[bcheidemann]

Description:

Error: Unable to find Node version 'nightly' for platform linux and architecture x64.

Action version:
actions/setup-node@v6

Platform:

• Ubuntu
• macOS
• Windows

Runner type:

• Hosted
• Self-hosted

Tools version:
n/a

Repro steps:
A description with steps to reproduce the issue. If you have a public example or repo to share, please provide the link.

      - name: Setup Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          cache: npm
          node-version: nightly

Expected behavior:
Should setup Node nightly without error.

Actual behavior:
Fails with error:

Error: Unable to find Node version 'nightly' for platform linux and architecture x64.

[v-priya-kinthali]

Hello @bcheidemann👋,
Thank you for reporting this issue. We will investigate it and get back to you as soon as we have some feedback.

[v-priya-kinthali]

Hello @bcheidemann👋,
The error appears to be related to specifying nightly as the node-version input in your workflow. While using the setup-node action, nightly alone is not recognised as a valid input. The recommended approach is to use formats such as ‘24-nightly’, ‘24.0.0-nightly’, or a full nightly build identifier, for example ‘24.0.0-nightly202505066102159fa1’.

For further details and a list of supported input formats, please refer to the official documentation: setup-node#nightly-versions.
Kindly update your workflow file using one of the suggested formats. If you need any additional assistance, please feel free to reach out. Thank you!

[bcheidemann]

@priya-kinthali thanks for the info.

It would be really helpful if nightly resolved to the latest nightly version so we don't need to constantly update our CI every time Node bumps it's major version. Would you consider a contribution implementing this?

[v-priya-kinthali]

Hello @bcheidemann👋,
Thank you for your feedback and suggestion!
We understand that having support for resolving nightly to the latest nightly version would help make CI maintenance easier. We will treat this as a feature request and explore the feasibility of implementing this functionality. We’ll continue to monitor community interest and consider this enhancement for future updates if there is more demand or feedback from other users as well.

In the meantime, we kindly recommend specifying the desired nightly version explicitly. If you have any further suggestions or questions, please feel free to let us know. Thank you again for helping us improve the action!