actions/setup-node takes too long during post-checkout on self-hosted runners

[jasikpark]

Description:
When running a CI job on a self-hosted runner, actions/setup-node takes the most time out of all the steps, requiring 8m to update the cache.

Action version:
uses: actions/setup-node@cdca7365b2dadb8aad0a33bc7601856ffabcc48e # v4

Platform:

• Ubuntu
• macOS
• Windows

Runner type:

• Hosted
• Self-hosted

Tools version:

node v22.13.1
pnpm@9.7.0

Repro steps:
A description with steps to reproduce the issue. If you have a public example or repo to share, please provide the link.

I believe this would be reproduced with a self-hosted github runner using this action, but i recognize that there's lots of confounding variables

Expected behavior:

actions/setup-node takes less than 2min in favorable network conditions to setup and teardown a CI run.

Actual behavior:

actions/setup-node takes 8min to tear down a CI run.

[mahabaleshwars]

Hi @jasikpark,
Thank you for creating this issue. We will investigate it and provide feedback as soon as we have some updates.

[richierichard]

I have been facing the same issue for past one week. I am using the "actions/setup-node@v4" and what used to take 5 seconds for setup and another 5 seconds for cleanup are now taking nearly 5 minutes each.

Before the issue, it was like

And after the issue, the workflow time was like

The overall workflow time went up from 3 minutes to 12 minutes.

[marc2332]

I have been facing the same issue for past one week. I am using the "actions/setup-node@v4" and what used to take 5 seconds for setup and another 5 seconds for cleanup are now taking nearly 5 minutes each.

Before the issue, it was like

And after the issue, the workflow time was like

The overall workflow time went up from 3 minutes to 12 minutes.

Check this #1298 (comment)

[richierichard]

@marc2332 thank you for your reply. we are already using the setup-node@v4 action which I believe points to the most up-to-date version.

[mahabaleshwars]

Hi @jasikpark and @richierichard ,
Can you provide repro steps or public repo to replicate the issue?

[mahabaleshwars]

Hi @jasikpark and @richierichard,

Just a gentle reminder—could you please provide reproduction steps or a public repository that we can use to replicate the issue?

[richierichard]

@mahabaleshwars sorry for the delayed response. I don't have any public repo which uses the setup-node action but I can give the snippet of how I use it in my organization.

- name: Setup NodeJS
  uses: actions/setup-node@v4
  with:
    node-version: ${{ inputs.NODE_VERSION }}

And the node version is set to "20" as of now.

What I noticed in my recent runs is that the build times, specifically the setup-node action step has retuned to normal. Attached the screenshot for reference.

[mahabaleshwars]

Hi @jasikpark,
Just a gentle reminder—could you please provide the reproduction steps or a public repository we can use to replicate the issue? That would really help us move forward. Thanks!

[mahabaleshwars]

Hi @jasikpark,

Just a gentle reminder—could you please provide reproduction steps or a public repository that we can use to replicate the issue?