From c47aeffd722a0afd9e9669b54eead09f8334ff8e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Zoltan Kochan <z@kochan.io>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2025 21:59:07 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] fix: linking commands of engines

close #10244
---
 .changeset/thirty-drinks-sin.md    |  7 +++
 exec/build-modules/src/index.ts    |  2 +-
 pkg-manager/link-bins/src/index.ts | 77 +++++++++++++++++-------------
 3 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 .changeset/thirty-drinks-sin.md

diff --git a/.changeset/thirty-drinks-sin.md b/.changeset/thirty-drinks-sin.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3a7d6dfad2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/thirty-drinks-sin.md
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+"@pnpm/link-bins": patch
+"@pnpm/build-modules": patch
+"pnpm": patch
+---
+
+Binaries of runtime engines (Node.js, Deno, Bun) are written to `node_modules/.bin` before lifecycle scripts (install, postinstall, prepare) are executed [#10244](https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/issues/10244).
diff --git a/exec/build-modules/src/index.ts b/exec/build-modules/src/index.ts
index 041b45e4c8..90dfe007cb 100644
--- a/exec/build-modules/src/index.ts
+++ b/exec/build-modules/src/index.ts
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ export async function linkBinsOfDependencies<T extends string> (
   const pkgs = await Promise.all(pkgNodes
     .map(async (dep) => ({
       location: dep.dir,
-      manifest: (await dep.fetching?.())?.bundledManifest ?? (await safeReadPackageJsonFromDir(dep.dir) as DependencyManifest) ?? {},
+      manifest: (await dep.fetching?.())?.bundledManifest ?? (await safeReadPackageJsonFromDir(dep.dir) as DependencyManifest),
     }))
   )
 
diff --git a/pkg-manager/link-bins/src/index.ts b/pkg-manager/link-bins/src/index.ts
index a0de854620..96cb508a87 100644
--- a/pkg-manager/link-bins/src/index.ts
+++ b/pkg-manager/link-bins/src/index.ts
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ function preferDirectCmds (allCmds: Array<CommandInfo & { isDirectDependency?: b
 
 export async function linkBinsOfPackages (
   pkgs: Array<{
-    manifest: DependencyManifest
+    manifest: DependencyManifest | null
     nodeExecPath?: string
     location: string
   }>,
@@ -111,7 +111,12 @@ export async function linkBinsOfPackages (
   const allCmds = unnest(
     (await Promise.all(
       pkgs
-        .map(async (pkg) => getPackageBinsFromManifest(pkg.manifest, pkg.location, pkg.nodeExecPath))
+        .map(async (pkg) => {
+          if (!pkg.manifest) {
+            return getBinsForKnownRuntimes(pkg.location)
+          }
+          return getPackageBinsFromManifest(pkg.manifest, pkg.location, pkg.nodeExecPath)
+        })
     ))
       .filter((cmds: Command[]) => cmds.length)
   )
@@ -204,38 +209,7 @@ async function getPackageBins (
   if (manifest == null) {
     // There is a probably a better way to do this.
     // It isn't good to have these hardcoded here.
-    switch (path.basename(target)) {
-    case 'node':
-      return [{
-        name: 'node',
-        path: path.join(target, getNodeBinLocationForCurrentOS()),
-        ownName: true,
-        pkgName: '',
-        pkgVersion: '',
-        makePowerShellShim: false,
-      }]
-    case 'deno':
-      return [{
-        name: 'deno',
-        path: path.join(target, getDenoBinLocationForCurrentOS()),
-        ownName: true,
-        pkgName: '',
-        pkgVersion: '',
-        makePowerShellShim: false,
-      }]
-    case 'bun':
-      return [{
-        name: 'bun',
-        path: path.join(target, getBunBinLocationForCurrentOS()),
-        ownName: true,
-        pkgName: '',
-        pkgVersion: '',
-        makePowerShellShim: false,
-      }]
-    }
-    // There's a directory in node_modules without package.json: ${target}.
-    // This used to be a warning but it didn't really cause any issues.
-    return []
+    return getBinsForKnownRuntimes(target)
   }
 
   if (isEmpty(manifest.bin) && !await isFromModules(target)) {
@@ -249,6 +223,41 @@ async function getPackageBins (
   return getPackageBinsFromManifest(manifest, target, nodeExecPath)
 }
 
+function getBinsForKnownRuntimes (target: string): CommandInfo[] {
+  switch (path.basename(target)) {
+  case 'node':
+    return [{
+      name: 'node',
+      path: path.join(target, getNodeBinLocationForCurrentOS()),
+      ownName: true,
+      pkgName: '',
+      pkgVersion: '',
+      makePowerShellShim: false,
+    }]
+  case 'deno':
+    return [{
+      name: 'deno',
+      path: path.join(target, getDenoBinLocationForCurrentOS()),
+      ownName: true,
+      pkgName: '',
+      pkgVersion: '',
+      makePowerShellShim: false,
+    }]
+  case 'bun':
+    return [{
+      name: 'bun',
+      path: path.join(target, getBunBinLocationForCurrentOS()),
+      ownName: true,
+      pkgName: '',
+      pkgVersion: '',
+      makePowerShellShim: false,
+    }]
+  }
+  // There's a directory in node_modules without package.json: ${target}.
+  // This used to be a warning but it didn't really cause any issues.
+  return []
+}
+
 async function getPackageBinsFromManifest (manifest: DependencyManifest, pkgDir: string, nodeExecPath?: string): Promise<CommandInfo[]> {
   const cmds = await getBinsFromPackageManifest(manifest, pkgDir)
   if (manifest.engines?.runtime && runtimeHasNodeDownloaded(manifest.engines.runtime) && !nodeExecPath) {