How to Set Up Node.js and pnpm with Mise

A short, copy-paste recipe for using mise to pin a Node.js version and enable pnpm via Corepack. Includes a minimal mise.toml snippet and a list of quick verification steps.

I use mise to pin the developer toolchain for a repository so onboarding is simple and reproducible. This recipe shows the minimal mise.toml entries I keep in most of my projects when I need Node and pnpm.

Why use mise for Node

• Pin a Node version for consistency across machines and CI.
• Use Corepack to enable and pin pnpm.
• Make project setup simple: clone, run mise, install packages.

Minimal mise.toml

Here is a tiny, practical example. It is intentionally simple and matches the setup I use on this site.

[tools]
node = "24"

[hooks]
postinstall = "corepack enable pnpm && corepack use pnpm@latest-10"

[settings]
experimental = true

[env]
_.path = ["./node_modules/.bin"]

Notes on the snippet

• node = "24" pins Node 24. Pick the major you need. mise will fetch it.
• The postinstall hook uses Corepack to enable the bundled package manager shim and select pnpm 10.x. Adjust the tag if you need a different pnpm series.
• Adding ./node_modules/.bin to the path is handy for local dev tooling.

Setup steps

1. Add the mise.toml above to your repository root.
2. Run mise install. On a new machine this will install the pinned Node version and make node available.
3. Install dependencies with pnpm. Because of the postinstall hook, Corepack will be configured and pnpm will be available.

mise install
pnpm install

Verify

which node
node --version
pnpm --version

If the versions match what you expect, the setup worked.

Tips

• If you want to lock pnpm to a specific minor/patch, change the use argument to [email protected] or whatever you need.
• For CI, add mise install step before running any Node commands.
• Keep the postinstall hook idempotent; it will run multiple times but the corepack commands are safe.