Add pnpm to my agent workflow

[srgibbs99]

Questions:

Is copilot-setup-steps.yml the right place to install pnpm so the agent picks it up?

Should I create my own custom yml then import into my frontmatter?

Are there any restrictions on which actions can be used as setup steps? Is there anything special needed after pnpm/action-setup — like also running setup-node with cache: 'pnpm' — so the agent actually resolves pnpm in its PATH?

Any examples of a working pnpm setup would be hugely appreciated!

I have tried many ways and as of yet not been successful -- sometimes the agent finds its own way to install pnpm, but I would like to optimize this.

[srgibbs99]

Update — here's what worked for me:

After a lot of trial and error, the approach that worked was skipping pnpm/action-setup and setup-node entirely and just using a plain npm install -g inside a shared component.

shared/pnpm.md — reads the version from packageManager in package.json:

---
steps:
  - name: Setup pnpm
    run: |
      PNPM_VERSION=$(node -e "process.stdout.write(require('./package.json').packageManager.split('@')[1].split('+')[0])")
      sudo npm install -g pnpm@$PNPM_VERSION
---

Then in the workflow frontmatter, import it and allow registry.npmjs.org in the network allowlist:

network:
  allowed:
    - node
    - registry.npmjs.org
    - github.com
imports:
  - shared/pnpm.md
steps:
  - name: Run pnpm install
    run: |
      pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
      pnpm build

The shared component runs before the agent prompt, so pnpm is on PATH when the agent starts. I also added a sanity check as the very first step in the agent prompt:

which pnpm && pnpm --version

And a guardrail instructing the agent to halt immediately if pnpm is not found, rather than trying to self-heal (which it will attempt otherwise).

Does anyone have a better approach? Specifically curious about:

• Is copilot-setup-steps.yml preferred over a shared import for this kind of environment setup?
• Is there a cleaner alternative to npm install -g that works reliably in the AWF sandbox?
• Any gotchas with skipping the pnpm store cache?

[pelikhan]

copilot setup for github copilot agent, it is a different agent. The way you did is correct