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A no-dependency micro helper for developers of binary addons for Node — two small one-file utilities integrated with GitHub releases:

• save-to-github-cache — uploads a built binary artifact to a GitHub release from CI, named by platform, architecture, and Node ABI (or N-API level).
• install-from-cache — downloads the matching artifact on the user's machine at install time, verifies it, and falls back to building from sources on any failure.

The motivation for this project: Why???

NPM 12 and install scripts

Starting with npm 12 (July 2026), npm does not run dependency lifecycle scripts by default — and this helper runs as the consuming addon's install script. End users have to approve the addon once (npm approve-scripts <addon>); otherwise neither the prebuilt download nor the node-gyp fallback runs. See NPM 12 and install scripts for the full story.

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Start here

New to the project? Read in this order, then dip into the reference pages below:

1. Save to GitHub cache — set up CI to build and publish artifacts on every release tag.
2. Install from cache — what happens on the user's machine, and every knob the installer takes.
3. NPM 12 and install scripts — the approval step your users will need from July 2026.

Documentation

Reference

• Install from cache — the consumer-side utility: flags, environment variables, the asset URL format, npm parameters.
• Save to GitHub cache — the CI-side utility: flags, compression formats, a GitHub Actions workflow example.

Guides

• Using N-API — ship one binary per platform/arch instead of one per Node major.
• Using a proxy — route downloads through corporate HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxies.
• Making a local mirror — serve artifacts from an internal host or the local filesystem.
• Build artifacts locally — save artifacts manually for exotic configurations.
• NPM 12 and install scripts — the consumer-side approval flow required by npm 12.

Project

• Release notes — the full release history with dates.
• Why??? — the motivation for this project.

Supported Node versions

We support all currently active Node versions. As of writing (June 2026) these are 22, 24 (LTS) and 26 (current). The package declares engines.node": ">=18" since 1.5.0; older Node will refuse to install (or emit an EBADENGINE warning).