Last pnpm version that worked

10.33.2

pnpm version

11.0.3

Code to reproduce the issue

Minimal workspace:

mkdir pnpm-ci-test && cd pnpm-ci-test

cat > package.json <<'JSON'
{ "name": "test", "private": true, "type": "module" }
JSON

cat > pnpm-workspace.yaml <<'YAML'
packages:
  - packages/*
YAML

mkdir -p packages/foo
cat > packages/foo/package.json <<'JSON'
{
  "name": "foo",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": { "left-pad": "1.3.0" }
}
JSON

# Generate a lockfile, then test ci.
npx -y pnpm@11.0.3 install
npx -y pnpm@11.0.3 ci
ls packages/foo/node_modules

Expected behavior

After pnpm ci, packages/foo/node_modules should contain the left-pad symlink (this is how it behaves in 10.33.2).

Actual behavior

packages/foo/node_modules is empty after pnpm ci. Only the root project's dependencies (if any) are installed; every workspace package is left without its node_modules repopulated.

Output of pnpm ci on the reproduction:

Removing node_modules
Removing packages/foo/node_modules
Lockfile is up to date, resolution step is skipped
Already up to date

Manually running pnpm clean && pnpm install --frozen-lockfile after the same starting state works correctly — workspace node_modules are repopulated. The regression appears specific to the combined pnpm ci flow.

Additional information

• Verified the same break in a real monorepo (Astro + a shared TS package) before isolating the minimal repro above.
• Side-by-side check using --reporter=ndjson shows both versions emit pnpm:scope with selected: 1 at the workspace root, so the difference isn't visible in that debug field — the install layer behaves differently after the implicit pnpm clean step in v11.
• Different from pnpm ci leaves almost empty node_modules #11361 (which was about .pnpm-workspace-state-v1.json cleanup and is fixed in v11.0.0). That fix shipped, but this separate regression remains.

Node.js version

25.9.0

Operating System

macOS