Flaky CI Failure: release-browser-sdk publish fails — npm@12.0.0 EBADENGINE incompatible with node v24.11.0

[github-actions]

Flaky CI Failure: release-browser-sdk publish fails — npm@12.0.0 EBADENGINE incompatible with node v24.11.0

Workflow: Release
Failed run: https://github.com/xmtp/libxmtp/actions/runs/29075647353
Commit: 6943ad2
Failed jobs: release-browser-sdk / bindings / publish / publish

Summary

The browser-sdk publish job runs npm install -g npm@latest, which resolved to npm@12.0.0. npm@12.0.0 requires node ^22.22.2 || ^24.15.0 || >=26.0.0, but the GitHub Actions runner has node v24.11.0, which does not satisfy those constraints. The install fails with EBADENGINE before publishing can proceed. PR #3839 applied a fix (npm@11 pin) to the node-sdk publish workflow but the same fix was not applied to the browser-sdk publish workflow.

Error Details

##[group]Run npm install -g npm@latest
npm install -g npm@latest

npm error code EBADENGINE
npm error engine Unsupported engine
npm error engine Not compatible with your version of node/npm: npm@12.0.0
npm error notsup Not compatible with your version of node/npm: npm@12.0.0
npm error notsup Required: {"node":"^22.22.2 || ^24.15.0 || >=26.0.0"}
npm error notsup Actual:   {"npm":"11.6.1","node":"v24.11.0"}
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/runner/.npm/_logs/2026-07-10T14_23_31_027Z-debug-0.log
##[error]Process completed with exit code 1.

Analysis

This is a workflow configuration failure, not a flaky test. npm released v12.0.0 which requires a newer Node.js than the runner provides (v24.11.0 vs the required >=24.15.0). The fix — pinning npm install -g npm@11 — was already applied to the node-sdk publish workflow in #3839, but the browser-sdk publish workflow still uses npm@latest. The fix is to apply the same npm major-version pin to the browser-sdk workflow (or upgrade the runner's Node.js version to >=24.15.0).

Related area: the browser-sdk release/publish workflow file.

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Reported by Flaky Failure Watcher