---
id: cli
title: "CLI & Node.js Settings"
sidebar_label: "CLI & Node.js"
---

## CLI Settings

### [no-]color

* Default: **auto**
* Type: **auto**, **always**, **never**

Controls colors in the output.

* **auto** - output uses colors when the standard output is a terminal or TTY.
* **always** - ignore the difference between terminals and pipes. You'll rarely
  want this; in most scenarios, if you want color codes in your redirected
  output, you can instead pass a `--color` flag to the pnpm command to force it
  to use color codes. The default setting is almost always what you'll want.
* **never** - turns off colors. This is the setting used by `--no-color`.

### loglevel

* Default: **info**
* Type: **debug**, **info**, **warn**, **error**

Any logs at or higher than the given level will be shown.
You can instead pass `--silent` to turn off all output logs.

### reporter

Selects the log reporter. See [`--reporter`](../cli/install.md#--reportername)
for the available reporters and terminal-dependent defaults.

### useBetaCli

* Default: **false**
* Type: **Boolean**

Experimental option that enables beta features of the CLI. This means that you
may get some changes to the CLI functionality that are breaking changes, or
potentially bugs.

### recursiveInstall

* Default: **true**
* Type: **Boolean**

If this is enabled, the primary behaviour of `pnpm install` becomes that of
`pnpm install -r`, meaning the install is performed on all workspace or
subdirectory packages.

Else, `pnpm install` will exclusively build the package in the current
directory.

### engineStrict

* Default: **false**
* Type: **Boolean**

If this is enabled, pnpm will not install any package that claims to not be
compatible with the current Node version.

Regardless of this configuration, installation will always fail if a project
(not a dependency) specifies an incompatible version in its `engines` field.

### npmPath

* Type: **path**

The location of the npm binary that pnpm uses for some actions, like publishing.

### pmOnFail

Added in: v11.0.0

* Default: **download**
* Type: **download**, **error**, **warn**, **ignore**

Overrides the `onFail` behavior of both the `packageManager` field and `devEngines.packageManager` when the running pnpm version does not match the declared one.

* `download`: download and run the declared pnpm version (this is the default and matches the previous `managePackageManagerVersions: true` behavior).
* `error`: fail the command (equivalent to the previous `packageManagerStrictVersion: true`).
* `warn`: print a warning but continue (equivalent to the previous `packageManagerStrict: false` or `COREPACK_ENABLE_STRICT=0`).
* `ignore`: skip the check entirely (equivalent to the previous `managePackageManagerVersions: false`). Useful when version management is handled by an external tool such as asdf, mise, or Volta.

A part of the configuration pnpm cannot read does not stop it from switching to the declared pnpm version, which reads the configuration itself. pnpm leaves out the file or setting it cannot read, and every other source still applies, so it switches only when the `pmOnFail` from the environment or a readable file is `download`.

Can be set via CLI flag, environment variable, or `pnpm-workspace.yaml`:

```sh
pnpm install --pm-on-fail=ignore
pnpm_config_pm_on_fail=ignore pnpm install
```

```yaml title="pnpm-workspace.yaml"
pmOnFail: ignore
```

This setting replaces the removed `managePackageManagerVersions`, `packageManagerStrict`, and `packageManagerStrictVersion` settings, as well as the `COREPACK_ENABLE_STRICT` environment variable.

Migration:

| Removed setting                       | Replace with                   |
| ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| `managePackageManagerVersions: true`  | `pmOnFail: download` (default) |
| `managePackageManagerVersions: false` | `pmOnFail: ignore`             |
| `packageManagerStrict: false`         | `pmOnFail: warn`               |
| `packageManagerStrictVersion: true`   | `pmOnFail: error`              |
| `COREPACK_ENABLE_STRICT=0`            | `pmOnFail: warn`               |

See also [`pnpm with`](../cli/with.md) for running pnpm at a specific version without changing this setting.

## Node.js settings

### nodeVersion

* Default: the value returned by **node -v**, without the v prefix
* Type: **exact semver version (not a range)**

The Node.js version to use when checking a package's `engines` setting.

If you want to prevent contributors of your project from adding new incompatible dependencies, use `nodeVersion` and `engineStrict` in a `pnpm-workspace.yaml` file at the root of the project:

```yaml title="pnpm-workspace.yaml"
nodeVersion: 12.22.0
engineStrict: true
```

This way, even if someone is using Node.js v22, they will not be able to install a new dependency that doesn't support Node.js v12.22.0.

### runtimeOnFail

Added in: v11.0.0

* Default: **undefined**
* Type: **download**, **error**, **warn**, **ignore**

Overrides the `onFail` field of [`devEngines.runtime`](../package_json.md#devenginesruntime) (and `engines.runtime`) in the root project's `package.json`. This is useful when you want a different local behavior than what is written in the manifest, for instance, forcing pnpm to download the declared runtime even when the manifest sets `onFail: "warn"`:

```yaml title="pnpm-workspace.yaml"
runtimeOnFail: download
```

### nodeDownloadMirrors

Added in: v11.0.0

* Default: **undefined**
* Type: **Record<string, string>**

Configure custom Node.js download mirrors in `pnpm-workspace.yaml`. The keys are release channels (`release`, `rc`, `nightly`, `v8-canary`, etc.) and the values are base URLs.

Here is how pnpm may be configured to download Node.js from a mirror in China:

```yaml title="pnpm-workspace.yaml"
nodeDownloadMirrors:
  release: https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/node/
  rc: https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/node-rc/
  nightly: https://npmmirror.com/mirrors/node-nightly/
```

Since v11.26.0, downloads from a mirror carry the npm registry credentials
configured for that URL, including bearer tokens, basic auth, and `tokenHelper`,
so a mirror behind an authenticating proxy works without a separate credential.