[BUG] ENEEDAUTH issue when running "npm publish" within a monorepo on a ci environment

[vighnesh153]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

I have a monorepo and I am trying to publish all the packages ./packages/* to NPM using Github Actions. When I run the npm publish command, I get the following error:

npm ERR! code ENEEDAUTH
npm ERR! need auth This command requires you to be logged in to https://registry.npmjs.org/
npm ERR! need auth You need to authorize this machine using `npm adduser`

I have already provided the NODE_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable but it is still not able to authenticate that.

There is an open issue which looks similar to this but it has got no comments (#5805)

Expected Behavior

The packages should be published without ENEEDAUTH error.

Steps To Reproduce

1. I have the following configuration for Github Actions publish workflow

name: Publish all packages to NPM

on:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: "lts/*"

      - name: Install latest NPM
        run: npm install -g npm@latest

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build
        run: npm run build:packages

      - name: Config git metadata
        run: |
          git config --global user.name 'Vighnesh Raut'
          git config --global user.email 'me@vighnesh153.com'

      - name: Publish the packages
        run: |
          npm publish --workspace=packages
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NODE_AUTH_TOKEN }}
          NPM_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NODE_AUTH_TOKEN }}
          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

2. Code setup

• Create a packages directory and add it in the root package.json

"workspaces": [
    "packages/*"
  ]

• Create 1 or 2 packages and add the required stuff in the package.json file

{
  "name": "...",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "...",
  "private": false,
  "publishConfig": {
    "access": "public"
  },
  "repository": {
    "type": "git",
    "url": "..."
  }
}

3. Push the files to github and trigger the worflow

Environment

• npm: 9.5.0
• Node.js: v18.14.0
• OS Name: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
• System Model Name: Github Actions CI Runner v2.301.1
• npm config:

; node bin location = /opt/hostedtoolcache/node/18.14.0/x64/bin/node
; node version = v18.14.0
; npm local prefix = /home/runner/work/vighnesh1[53](https://github.com/vighnesh153/vighnesh153-turbo/actions/runs/4209840637/jobs/7307091317#step:10:54)-turbo/vighnesh153-turbo
; npm version = 9.5.0
; cwd = /home/runner/work/vighnesh153-turbo/vighnesh153-turbo
; HOME = /home/runner
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults.

[caugner]

@vighnesh153 I ran into this today, and it turns out that npm doesn't usually accept an auth token via an environemnt variable like NODE_AUTH_TOKEN or NPM_TOKEN, unless you specify this explicitly in an .npmrc file, which the setup-node action can create for you:

Please note that you need to set the registry-url to https://registry.npmjs.org/ in setup-node to properly configure your credentials. (Source)

In your example:

       - name: Setup Node.js
         uses: actions/setup-node@v3
         with:
           node-version: "lts/*"
+          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"

Hope this helps! 🤞

[vighnesh153]

This was the issue. Thanks a lot. I wish the error message was more descriptive.