Sporadic silent failure when downloading Node.js

[itd-ndr]

Description:
The action terminates without failing and without downloading Node.js after printing Attempting to download <version>....
It reminds me of a similar issue in the download-artifact action: actions/download-artifact#454

Action version:
v6.4.0 48b55a0

Platform:

• Ubuntu
• macOS
• Windows

Runner type:

• Hosted
• Self-hosted

Tools version:

Node.js: 20.19.0 and 24.15.0
Pnpm: 10.24.0
gha-runner-scale-set: 0.13.0
Runner version: 2.334.0

Repro steps:
It fails sporadically in multiple repositories at different times. Retries are successful. Unfortunately, the failures happened in private repositories.
Here is part of one job that had this issue

  build-webfrontend:
    runs-on: "gha-standard-scale-set"
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@de0fac2e4500dabe0009e67214ff5f5447ce83dd # v6.0.2
      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@fc06bc1257f339d1d5d8b3a19a8cae5388b55320 # v5.0.0
        name: Install pnpm
        with:
          package_json_file: service/webfrontend/package.json
          run_install: false
      - uses: actions/setup-node@48b55a011bda9f5d6aeb4c2d9c7362e8dae4041e # v6.4.0
        with:
          cache: "pnpm"
          cache-dependency-path: "**/pnpm-lock.yaml"
          node-version-file: service/webfrontend/.nvmrc
      - run: make webfrontend-build

Expected behavior:
Either a successful Node.js installation or a failure with an error message.

Actual behavior:
It terminates successfully without an error and without installing Node.js.

Part of the Workflow Run Logs

2026-05-19T15:48:24.2321156Z ##[group]Run pnpm/action-setup@fc06bc1257f339d1d5d8b3a19a8cae5388b55320
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2321994Z with:
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2322559Z   package_json_file: service/webfrontend/package.json
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2323483Z   run_install: false
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2324009Z   dest: ~/setup-pnpm
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2324351Z   cache: false
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2324882Z   cache_dependency_path: pnpm-lock.yaml
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2325385Z   standalone: false
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2325724Z env:
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2326159Z   <REDACTED>
2026-05-19T15:48:24.2351981Z ##[endgroup]
2026-05-19T15:48:24.4414011Z ##[group]Running self-installer...
2026-05-19T15:48:24.8553870Z (node:261) [DEP0169] DeprecationWarning: `url.parse()` behavior is not standardized and prone to errors that have security implications. Use the WHATWG URL API instead. CVEs are not issued for `url.parse()` vulnerabilities.
2026-05-19T15:48:24.8557529Z (Use `node --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
2026-05-19T15:48:25.3810661Z Progress: resolved 1, reused 0, downloaded 0, added 0
2026-05-19T15:48:25.4101002Z Packages: +1
2026-05-19T15:48:25.4101765Z +
2026-05-19T15:48:26.3841605Z Progress: resolved 1, reused 0, downloaded 1, added 0
2026-05-19T15:48:27.5779167Z Progress: resolved 1, reused 0, downloaded 1, added 1
2026-05-19T15:48:27.5780488Z Progress: resolved 1, reused 0, downloaded 1, added 1, done
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6137418Z 
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6138177Z dependencies:
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6138940Z + pnpm 10.24.0 (11.1.3 is available)
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6139826Z 
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6190499Z Done in 2.9s
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6371189Z ##[endgroup]
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6372058Z Installation Completed!
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6681516Z ##[group]Run actions/setup-node@48b55a011bda9f5d6aeb4c2d9c7362e8dae4041e
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6682079Z with:
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6682260Z   cache: pnpm
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6682475Z   cache-dependency-path: **/pnpm-lock.yaml
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6682785Z   node-version-file: service/webfrontend/.nvmrc
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6683050Z   check-latest: false
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6683430Z   token: ***
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6683633Z   package-manager-cache: true
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6683863Z env:
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6684031Z   <REDACTED>
2026-05-19T15:48:27.6693943Z ##[endgroup]
2026-05-19T15:48:27.8540274Z Node version file is not JSON file
2026-05-19T15:48:27.8543748Z Resolved service/webfrontend/.nvmrc as 24.15.0
2026-05-19T15:48:27.8569257Z Attempting to download 24.15.0...
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4002714Z ##[group]Run make webfrontend-build
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4003491Z �[36;1mmake webfrontend-build�[0m
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4016351Z shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4016969Z env:
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4017287Z   <REDACTED>
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4039645Z   PNPM_HOME: /home/runner/setup-pnpm/node_modules/.bin
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4039942Z ##[endgroup]
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4095248Z cd service/webfrontend && pnpm install
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4142834Z /home/runner/setup-pnpm/node_modules/.bin/pnpm: 16: exec: node: not found
2026-05-19T15:48:47.4146185Z make: *** [Makefile:35: webfrontend-install] Error 127

[chiranjib-swain]

Hi @itd-ndr ,
Thank you for creating this issue. We will investigate it and provide feedback as soon as we have some updates.