What is required to ensure continued development of corepack?

[trivikr]

Is your request related to a problem? Please describe.

As per contributor graph, @aduh95 has most number of commits in corepack, and they commented the following in the TSC vote which decided to remove corepack from Node.js distributions in v25+

To clarify, it (corepack) might be deprecated at some point, that vote does not define anything about deprecation status of Corepack, only how it is distributed. That being said, there are no plans to deprecate Corepack at the moment, and in any case, it will be maintained at least as long as Node.js 24.x is not EOL.

I'm an active user of corepack, and I plan to install its latest version from npm instead of using the one provided by Node.js way before it's removed in v25+. I want development of corepack to be continued for the benefit of its users.

Describe the solution you'd like

What is required to ensure development of corepack continues, and it's not deprecated?

Are there some metrics that maintainers are looking for, like weekly downloads, or number of open issues/PRs or something else?

The npm trends already show that when there was an issue with downloading pnpm package manager version from corepack, users switched to downloading it from npm and downloads increased to 2M+ per week.

Details

[trivikr]

I was the same person who'd cut issue in Aug 2024 to stop development of corepack in #545, as it's future in Node.js distribution was unclear.

However, multiple things have changed since then:

• Yarnpkg hasn't come up with a solution on managing it's version. Details in [Feature] Alternative to Node.js experimental corepack to manage package manager version  yarnpkg/berry#6443

  • It continues to recommend corepack as the preferred installation method, but suggesting installing latest version from npm instead of using the Node.js provided one.

• pnpm also recommends corepack as a second option, after it's standalone script which installs the latest version and not what the project defines.

• Corepack added support for standard devEngines in feat: add limited support for devEngines #643, and released it in v0.32.0.

• The npm trends show that when there was an issue with downloading pnpm package manager version from corepack in late Feb 2025, users switched to downloading it from npm and downloads increased to 2M+ per week.

  Details

  

This data indicates that there are happy users of corepack in the ecosystem who'll continue to use it even if it's not distributed through Node.js distribution

[aduh95]

What is required to ensure development of corepack continues, and it's not deprecated?

Like any other open-source project, folks who volunteer to do the work, review PRs, triage issues, etc. The current number is not zero, but it could be affected by the recent TSC decision.

[trivikr]

I've started watching the corepack repository, and will try my best to contribute back.

If you're reading this message, and want to ensure continued development corepack, consider watching the repository too.
How to contribute is listed in https://github.com/nodejs/corepack/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

[MikeMcC399]

I would like to continue to contribute here. According to the Node.js TSC decision, Corepack will be added and shipped with the upcoming Node.js 24.x release line which reaches planned EOL after another three years in April 30, 2028. Corepack is also independently downloadable from the npm registry https://www.npmjs.com/package/corepack and there was no decision from the TSC to make any change to that option.

So long as pnpm and Yarn continue to refer to Corepack as an installation method, Corepack will remain relevant to my work and so I am keen to support it.

[mateonunez]

I think it's a great idea to look for contributors and keep Corepack alive. Of course I want to help by actively contributing to this project.

[trivikr]

An easy way to start is to go through existing issues, and provide a summary and an action item.

I provided summaries in some, for example:

• https://www.github.com/nodejs/corepack/issues/104#issuecomment-2746078024
• https://www.github.com/nodejs/corepack/issues/57#issuecomment-2746083930

Depending on conversations, you can also create new issues to track them separately.
Example https://www.github.com/nodejs/corepack/issues/687

[trivikr]

Closing as maintainers have provided answer to the original question, and multiple folks have shown interest.
I've also provided some examples of how you can start too in the previous comment.

[MikeMcC399]

@trivikr

It seems that maintenance activities in this repo have slowed down. Is there consensus to move the repo forward in terms of an on-going active maintenance team responding to issues and PRs?

PR #685 for instance has been open for a month with no progress.