Publish NPM package from GitHub Actions

Explains how to set up a manually triggerable GitHub Actions file that bumps the patch, minor, or major version of an NPM package and publishes it to the NPM registry.

Add NPM access token

Follow the steps at https://docs.npmjs.com/about-access-tokens.

Create a dispatchable GitHub Actions YAML file.

# .github/workflows/npm_publish.yml
name: Publish new version to NPM
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      version_update_type:
        description: "SemVer update version type (patch, minor, or major)"
        required: true
        default: "patch"

jobs:
  publish_to_npm:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - run: git config --global user.name 'Ben Rombaut'
      - run: git config --global user.email 'rombaut.benj@gmail.com'
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm version ${{ github.event.inputs.version_update_type }}
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v2
        with:
          node-version: "16"
          registry-url: "https://registry.npmjs.org"
      - run: npm publish --access public
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

You can now manually trigger this GitHub Action from the Actions tab on the GiHub Repo, specifying whether you should bump a patch, minor, or major version of your package.