[MikeMcC399]

Description

Update the default Node.js version from 24 (now maintenance LTS) to 26 (active LTS) in:

• .node-version
• .nvmrc

Motivation and Context

Node.js 26 transitioned to Active LTS with the release Node.js 26.13.0 on 2026-10-28. This is now the recommended stable default version for CI and linting usage.

Changing this version has no effect on generated Docker images.

Testing Details

Test each npm script to confirm that it runs successfully under Node.js 26.13.0:

$ npm run
Scripts available in docker-node via `npm run`:
  build
    node build-automation.mjs
  format:toc
    doctoc --update-only .
  format:toc:check
    doctoc --update-only --dryrun .
  format:prettier
    prettier --write .
  format:prettier:check
    prettier --check .
  format:javascript
    eslint --fix
  format:javascript:check
    eslint
  lint
    run-s format:toc:check format:prettier:check format:javascript:check
  lint:fix
    run-s format:toc format:prettier format:javascript
  check:markdown-links
    find *.md docs/*.md -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 markdown-link-check -c markdown_link_check_config.json

Types of changes

• Documentation
• Version change (Update, remove or add more Node.js versions)
• Variant change (Update, remove or add more variants, or versions of variants)
• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to change)
• Other (none of the above)

Checklist

• My code follows the code style of this project.
• My change requires a change to the documentation.
• I have updated the documentation accordingly.
• I have read the CONTRIBUTING.md document.
• All new and existing tests passed.

[nschonni]

I don't think I understood why we have both these files in the repo. I think only the .node-version is used by CI. Can we just pick one and drop the other?

[MikeMcC399]

I don't think I understood why we have both these files in the repo. I think only the .node-version is used by CI. Can we just pick one and drop the other?

Keeping two similar files may look redundant, but there is a reason. I'd want to keep .nvmrc, as I use it locally with nvm.

nvm is a recommended Node.js version manager on https://nodejs.org/en/download. Unfortunately it is not compatible with the more widely used .node-version used by multiple tools as listed on node-version-usage.

Both .node-version and .nvmrc are useful to me.

.node-version is also used in CI as input parameter to actions/setup-node.

Usage

n allows automated Node.js version switching with auto:

n auto # installs .node-version or .nvmrc defined versions

nvm offers similar functionality for switching to a default Node.js version:

nvm install # installs the .nvmrc defined version
nvm use # uses the .nvmrc defined version