GitHub Actions allow you to test Node.js projects. You can define a specific Node.js version you want to run your tests against. You may also provide a list of Node.js versions allowing you to run your tests against them.

This tutorial shows you how to run your GitHub Actions with the latest Node.js release using the actions/setup-node package.

GitHub Actions Series Overview

Use Latest Node.js Version in GitHub Actions

The actions/setup-node package allows you to define the desired Node.js versions in different formats.

You may use
- a major version identifier: 18 or 21 - a specific version: 18.10 or 20.9.0 - LTS syntax: lts or lts/hydrogen (stands for Node.js v18) - the latest release: * or latest/current/node

You should pick any of the version identifiers from the „latest“ section. We like to use the latest version because it’s the most understandable identifier that you can map to the version that will run in your action’s environment. And when you’re coming back to a project after some time, you still know what latest stands for.

Here’s a sample workflow configuration on how to use the node-version: latest:

name: Run tests

on: push

jobs:  
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    name: Run project tests

    steps:
    - name: Setup Node.js ("latest" Version)
      uses: actions/setup-node@v4
      with:
        node-version: latest   # <-- use "latest" for the most recent Node.js version

    - name: Other steps …

Latest Node.js Version in a Testing Matrix

You may also specify the latest Node.js version in your testing matrix. Add it as a version in your list of Node.js versions:

name: Run tests

on: push

jobs:  
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    strategy:
      matrix:
        node-version: [18.x, 20.x, latest] # <-- add "latest" for the most recent Node.js version

    name: Node ${{ matrix.node-version }}

    steps:
    - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
      uses: actions/setup-node@v4
      with:
        node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}

    - name: Other steps …

Why Testing Against the Latest Node.js Version?

To fail early on new Node.js versions.

At the time of writing this tutorial, the „current“ and „latest“ version of Node.js is v21. At some point, the Node.js project transitions the v21 release line to the stable v22 versioning. At that point, v21 sunsets, and the release line is stopped.

If you’re testing against the latest release, you’re always testing against the newest major version. It’s a dynamic, rolling release. Keep this in mind if you don’t want to spend much time on maintenance because your code might fail for newer Node.js releases. There’s the chance you feel bad for failing tests because your code is outdated.

Should You Worry About the Testing Overhead?

It depends. If you’re paying for GitHub Actions, you should decide whether the extra seconds or minutes are worth it. The time that GitHub Action runners spend on the „latest“ Node.js version may add up to over a month. In such cases, you may want to test the most recent Node.js version only on specific branches, like main.

For open-source packages, you don’t need to worry about the overhead. You’re not paying for the time spent on GitHub Action runners. You may enable the latest version ensuring that your code is compatible with the newest version.

Enjoy testing Node.js in GitHub Actions!

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Mentioned Resources

• GitHub Actions: actions/setup-node repository
• GitHub Actions: docs for actions/setup-node on Node.js version definitions in different formats