Install npm modules automatically for node actions

Currently, if the node_modules aren’t included in the repo, the action will fail on require('@actions/core'). This probably should be dealt with on the platform level, but in the mean time, node_modules shouldn’t be excluded in the .gitignore.

[bryanmacfarlane]

You’re referencing master which is the coding branch. You should reference a distribution branch. The distribution branch contains a fully self contained set of code.

https://github.com/actions/toolkit/blob/master/docs/action-versioning.md

This template and walkthrough has you checking in production dependencies.

The runner downloads the files at the location and ref and runs it. That’s it.

In the example above ^^ you’re referencing master which is the coding branch and doesn’t have production runtime dependencies.

npm install is a dev build time action. distributions are self contained.

covered in readme walthrough: https://github.com/actions/javascript-action#publish-to-a-distribution-branch

[bryanmacfarlane]

I will write up a public document soon on the toolkit repo with the GPR proposal which we will start soon …