Alternate package manager support in deploy_component (yarn/pnpm for reference and payload deploys)

[kriszyp]

The parent task CORE-2824 ("Support multiple package managers") is marked Done — the devEngines.packageManager detection was wired up. Two remaining subtasks in Backlog cover the deploy paths:

CORE-2825 — Payload deploy (deploy by zipped payload)

When a component is deployed via payload (tarball/zip rather than a git reference), the package manager used to install dependencies needs to be detected from the package's devEngines.packageManager or engines.packageManager field and honored. Today only npm is guaranteed to work.

CORE-2826 — Reference deploy (deploy by git URL)

When a component is deployed by git reference (e.g. git+ssh://...), the same package manager detection and invocation should apply — yarn or pnpm should be used if declared.

Acceptance criteria (both paths)

• devEngines.packageManager (or engines.packageManager) in the component's package.json is read.
• The correct binary (yarn, pnpm, or npm) is invoked for dependency installation.
• If the declared package manager binary is absent on the host, a clear error is returned.
• Documented.

Related

• CORE-2903 / HarperFast/harper#661 — "use npm install <pkg> for non-source packages" also touches the install path.

---

🤖 Filed by Claude on behalf of Kris.