Proposal: Consider migrating the Bootstrap repository from npm to pnpm

Prerequisites

• I have searched for duplicate or closed feature requests
• I have read the contributing guidelines

Proposal

Background

First of all, I want to say that npm has served the JavaScript ecosystem extremely well for many years. It is stable, familiar, and widely adopted.

However, after using pnpm in several projects, I found that it provides a significantly better development experience, especially for large repositories.

I would like to suggest considering migrating the Bootstrap repository from npm to pnpm.

Why pnpm?

Some benefits that pnpm could bring:

• Reduced disk usage

  pnpm uses a content-addressable store and hard links, which avoids duplicating the same packages across multiple projects. This can significantly reduce disk space usage, especially for contributors who work on many JavaScript projects.

• Faster installation

  pnpm's installation process is often faster due to its global store and efficient dependency management.

• Stricter dependency management

  pnpm's unique node_modules structure can help detect undeclared dependencies and make the dependency graph more reliable.

• Modern Node.js ecosystem adoption

  More and more open-source projects are adopting pnpm as their default package manager, including many large-scale JavaScript projects.

• Improved contributor workflow

  Faster dependency installation means contributors can spend less time waiting for setup and more time working on the project. With pnpm's efficient storage and caching mechanism, repeated installs are often completed within seconds, making local development and contribution workflows more efficient.

Motivation and context

Much faster installation (repeated installations can complete almost instantly) and reduced disk usage.

Start with .github/CONTRIBUTING.md and the repository’s current package-manager setup; the issue names no implementation files or tests. Establish the migration scope and acceptance checks for installation and contributor workflow, then confirm whether the proposal is viable for Bootstrap.