cache node_modules in github workflow

main.yaml

name: Caching npm packages

on: push

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Cache node modules
      id: cache-nodemodules
      uses: actions/cache@v2
      env:
        cache-name: cache-node-modules
      with:
        # caching node_modules
        path: node_modules
        key: ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-${{ hashFiles('**/package-lock.json') }}
        restore-keys: |
          ${{ runner.os }}-build-${{ env.cache-name }}-
          ${{ runner.os }}-build-
          ${{ runner.os }}-

    - name: Install Dependencies
      if: steps.cache-nodemodules.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
      run: npm ci

    - name: Build
      run: npm build

I was misled by https://github.com/actions/cache/blob/main/examples.md#macos-and-ubuntu, using path: ~/.npm.
Thank you!

This is indeed working wonderfully. Not sure why the official docs talk about ~/.npm

amazing thanks
@rupeshtiwari
is there any option to use the cache also only if the version property has been changed in package.lock? using npm version prerelease for example

The example works well if the primary key has a cache hit and npm ci is skipped. I would remove restore-keys though. Running npm ci will remove any node_modules folder. If there is a cache entry that matches restore-keys but not key, GitHub will restore it, but then cache-hit will be false and npm ci will immediately delete the restored cache before installing dependencies from scratch. A minor thing but will save some redundant work.