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Build/Test Tools: Remove npx commands in 6.6 - #13112

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Build/Test Tools: Remove npx commands in 6.6#13112
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adimoldovan:65864-remove-npx-6.6

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@adimoldovan adimoldovan commented Aug 17, 2026

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Backport of r63309, already in trunk via #13021, to the 6.6 branch. It replaces the two remaining npx calls in Gruntfile.js with npm exec --no, which runs an installed binary instead of downloading and installing one, and adds update-browserslist-db as a direct dev dependency.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/65864

Testing instructions

No workflow runs wp-packages:update or browserslist:update. Both are reached only through grunt sync-gutenberg-packages, a manual release-lead task. CI therefore does not exercise this change, so check it locally.

  1. Run npm ci.
  2. Run npm exec --no -- update-browserslist-db --version. It prints browserslist-lint 1.0.16 and downloads nothing.
  3. Run npm exec --no -- wp-scripts --version. It prints Script name is missing. That message comes from the installed binary, and nothing is downloaded.
  4. Run rm -rf node_modules/update-browserslist-db, then run npm exec --no -- update-browserslist-db --version again. It now fails with npx canceled due to missing packages and no YES option instead of fetching the package. Run npm ci to restore the tree.
  5. Run npm ls update-browserslist-db. It reports one copy at 1.0.16, both as a direct dev dependency and deduped under browserslist.
  6. Run npx --no grunt jshint:grunt. It reports 1 file lint free.

Step 4 is the point of the change. npx installs the missing package and runs its install scripts. npm exec --no refuses.

Use of AI Tools

AI assistance: Yes — Claude Code (Claude Opus 5) applied r63309 to the 6.6 branch and verified the changeset.


This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

@desrosj desrosj moved this from Backlog to In progress in WordPress Project Build Tooling Aug 17, 2026
@adimoldovan adimoldovan changed the title Build/Test Tools: Replace npx with npm exec --no in Grunt tasks. Build/Test Tools: Remove npx commands in 6.6 Aug 18, 2026
Backport of r63309 to the 6.6 branch. `npx` installs a package and its
dependencies, and runs every install script, when the binary is not
already installed.

The `wp-packages:update` and `browserslist:update` tasks now run the
local binaries instead. Adds `update-browserslist-db` to
`devDependencies`, so `browserslist:update` does not depend on npm
hoisting it out of `browserslist`.
@adimoldovan
adimoldovan force-pushed the 65864-remove-npx-6.6 branch from f7c79a3 to 404147e Compare August 18, 2026 08:45
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Test using WordPress Playground

The changes in this pull request can previewed and tested using a WordPress Playground instance.

WordPress Playground is an experimental project that creates a full WordPress instance entirely within the browser.

Some things to be aware of

  • All changes will be lost when closing a tab with a Playground instance.
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  • A fresh instance is created each time the link below is clicked.
  • Every time this pull request is updated, a new ZIP file containing all changes is created. If changes are not reflected in the Playground instance,
    it's possible that the most recent build failed, or has not completed. Check the list of workflow runs to be sure.

For more details about these limitations and more, check out the Limitations page in the WordPress Playground documentation.

Test this pull request with WordPress Playground.

@adimoldovan
adimoldovan marked this pull request as ready for review August 18, 2026 10:34
@adimoldovan adimoldovan self-assigned this Aug 18, 2026
@adimoldovan
adimoldovan requested a review from desrosj August 18, 2026 10:34
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