Mise Lang Node Overview

Without the opt-in, mise ignores the idiomatic files — this is deliberate. Silent reading of untracked files was deemed surprising.

Pinning in mise.toml

[tools]
node = "24"           # major
node = "24.1"         # major.minor
node = "24.1.0"       # exact
node = "lts"          # latest LTS (resolves at install time)
node = "latest"       # avoid for team projects — moves when new releases land

Team rule: pin to at least major.minor. "latest" is fine for tinkering, terrible for reproducibility.

LTS rule: "lts" resolves to the current LTS major. Fine for long-lived services. For exact reproducibility, pin "22" (the major). Upgrading to a new LTS is then a deliberate commit.

package.json#engines vs mise.toml

{
  "name": "myapp",
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=22",
    "pnpm": ">=9"
  }
}

• engines.node is a constraint for consumers of your package (npm install warns if node version is off).
• mise.toml node is the exact version that mise installs.

They coexist: engines.node: ">=22" says "we require at least 22", mise.toml node = "22.12" says "this project uses 22.12 specifically". mise's idiomatic reader treats engines as a loose hint; the explicit [tools] line is authoritative.

Corepack + packageManager

packageManager is the modern way to pin pnpm, yarn, or bun:

{
  "packageManager": "[email protected]"
}

With corepack enable (mise can do this via a task hook), Node auto-shims pnpm / yarn to the exact version in packageManager. You don't need to install pnpm via mise — corepack handles it.

Wire it in mise.toml:

[tools]
node = "24"

[hooks]
# Run corepack enable once after mise install, so the first `pnpm` invocation works.
enter = "corepack enable 2>/dev/null || true"

This is the cleanest pnpm/yarn pinning story. No npm install -g pnpm drift.

npm: backend for global CLIs

mise has an npm: backend for installing npm packages as mise-managed tools:

[tools]
node = "24"
"npm:typescript" = "5.6"
"npm:prettier" = "3.4"
"npm:@anthropic-ai/claude-code" = "latest"
"npm:@google/gemini-cli" = "latest"

Benefits vs npm install -g:

• Version pinning via mise.lock.
• No PATH pollution from a shared global node_modules.
• Every dev gets the same version.

Trade-offs:

• Slightly slower first install (mise creates a per-tool prefix).
• Tools that expect other globally-installed tools to be present may need PATH fiddling.

Use npm: for: anything you'd otherwise npm install -g. Don't use it for project deps — those belong in package.json.

Auto-detection gotchas

1. .nvmrc with just a number (22) — mise interprets as 22.x latest. Exact matches like v22.12.0 also work.
2. package.json#engines.node with a range (">=22 <23") — mise picks the highest matching installed version, or the latest in the range if none installed. Can be surprising in CI.
3. Multiple version files in the same dir — idiomatic reader goes .tool-versions > .nvmrc > .node-version > engines.node. Don't mix them; pick one.
4. nvm use in shell rc — migrate to mise activate to avoid double-shimming. See mise-migrate-from-nvm.

Common setups

Single-app Node service

[tools]
node = "24"

[env]
NODE_ENV = { required = "dev or production or test" }

[tasks.dev]
run = "node --watch src/index.js"

[tasks.test]
run = "node --test"

Monorepo with pnpm

[tools]
node = "24"

[hooks]
enter = "corepack enable 2>/dev/null || true"

[tasks.install]
run = "pnpm install --frozen-lockfile"
sources = ["package.json", "pnpm-lock.yaml", "packages/*/package.json"]

[tasks.build]
depends = ["install"]
run = "pnpm -r build"

Global tools only (dotfiles pattern)

# ~/.config/mise/config.toml
[tools]
node = "lts"
"npm:@anthropic-ai/claude-code" = "latest"
"npm:prettier" = "latest"
"npm:typescript-language-server" = "latest"

See also

• mise-lang-node-packages — npm vs pnpm vs yarn vs bun, corepack details.
• mise-migrate-from-nvm — moving off nvm.
• mise-env-directives — [env] depth.
• mise-tool-versioning — version pinning across all languages.
• mise docs: mise.jdx.dev/lang/node.html.