avm-plugin-node

avm's native Node.js provider: version install/switching plus automatic package.json script aliases. Works with avm via avm's plugin marketplace — install with:

avm plugin add node

That fetches this repo's latest compiled release for your platform from GitHub — no Rust toolchain or network access needed beyond the one download. See Release process below if you're building/publishing this repo itself.

Features

• Live version index — avm node versions reads nodejs.org/dist/index.json directly, so every real Node release is available immediately, no hardcoded/stale list.
• Version install & switching — per-project (local) and machine-wide (global) pins, same model as nvm/fnm/asdf, resolved through avm's config.
• Verified downloads — every archive is checked against the release's SHASUMS256.txt (from the same mirror) before extraction; a mismatch or missing checksum file aborts the install (AVM_ALLOW_UNVERIFIED=1 skips it).
• package.json script aliases — if a project has a package.json with a scripts block, avm exposes each script as a runnable alias (avm <script-name>) automatically, with the right package manager (npm/pnpm/yarn/bun) chosen from the lockfile present. This part runs inside avm-cli itself (not through the plugin protocol), so it works even before you've run avm plugin add node.
• Global packages resolve across local version switches — npm install -g <pkg> under your global Node version stays reachable even when a different local Node version is active in a project (avm's shim resolution tries the local pin's bin dir first, then falls back to the global pin's).

Commands

Once installed (avm plugin add node), everything is under avm node:

Command	What it does
avm node	Interactive menu (list / browse versions / install latest / uninstall / help)
avm node list	Show the selected and installed versions
avm node versions	Browse the 10 most recent releases
avm node <major> versions	e.g. avm node 20 versions — every release on that major line
avm node latest versions	Just the newest release
avm node use <version> [-g|--global]	Select an installed version, locally (default) or globally
avm node set <version> [-g|--global]	Alias for use
avm node install <version|latest|N>	Install (if missing) + auto-pin: local, and global too if nothing's pinned globally yet
avm node install <version> --global	Install + pin globally only
avm node install <version> --no-pin	Install without touching any pin
avm node uninstall <version>	Remove a managed version

<version> accepts an exact version (20.11.1), a bare major (20 — resolves to that major's latest), or latest.

Package.json scripts work without any extra command — from a directory with a package.json:

avm which start     # shows where the "start" alias resolves to
avm start            # runs it (npm/pnpm/yarn/bun run start, manager auto-detected)

Environment

No special env vars — Node doesn't need one (unlike JAVA_HOME or ANDROID_HOME). avm just puts the selected version's bin/ on PATH.

Release process

Tag-triggered (vX.Y.Z) GitHub Actions workflow builds avm-plugin-node_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz for linux_amd64, linux_arm64, and darwin_arm64, and publishes them as a GitHub Release — that's what avm plugin add node downloads. See avm-marketplace for the registry entry that points at this repo, and the main avm repo's docs/plugins/CREATING_A_PLUGIN.md for the full wire protocol this executable speaks (manifest, versions, is-installed, installed-versions, executable-path, env-vars, install, uninstall).

cargo build --release
# binary at target/release/avm-plugin-node