Summary & Key Takeaways ​

• pnpm 11 RC 2 introduces breaking changes by removing managePackageManagerVersions, packageManagerStrict, and packageManagerStrictVersion settings.
• These settings are replaced by a new pmOnFail setting, which directly controls the failure behavior for packageManager and devEngines.packageManager.
• The COREPACK_ENABLE_STRICT environment variable is no longer honored; users should migrate to pmOnFail.
• pnpm dlx and pnpm create now respect project-level security and trust policy settings.
• New native commands like star, unstar, stars, and whoami have been implemented.
• A new pnpm with <version|current> <args...> command allows running pnpm at a specific version for a single invocation, bypassing project pins.
• The pmOnFail setting can be configured via CLI, environment variables, pnpm-workspace.yaml, or .npmrc.

Our Commentary ​

This RC for pnpm 11 brings some substantial changes, particularly the consolidation of package manager versioning logic into pmOnFail. While breaking changes are always a bit of a headache, simplifying these settings into one clear option seems like a good move for long-term maintainability and clarity. The pnpm with command is a fantastic addition for testing or running scripts with specific pnpm versions without altering the project's pinned version. This is a huge win for DX, especially in monorepos or when dealing with legacy projects. We're excited to see the final release.