Summary & Key Takeaways ​

• CLI options like --registry and --allow-build are now universally accepted across more commands for better consistency.
• The --dir or -C option can now be placed anywhere on the command line.
• pnpm publish --provenance now includes retries with exponential backoff for Sigstore signing exchanges.
• pnpm update --latest correctly resolves dependencies declared via npm: aliases.

Our Commentary ​

Alpha releases are always a bit of a mixed bag, but these CLI parity improvements for pnpm 12 are genuinely welcome. I've definitely hit those little inconsistencies where a flag works on one command but not another. The publish --provenance retries are also a smart move; flaky network conditions shouldn't derail a release. It's the small quality-of-life fixes that often make the biggest difference in daily dev work, and we're seeing a good chunk of those here.