using-pnpm-link.md

Using pnpm link for Local SDK Testing

pnpm link symlinks a local SDK package into a test project. Changes are available in the test project after a rebuild, without a publish step. For packages where linking causes problems (e.g. SvelteKit or Angular), use yalc instead.

Building packages

Build the SDK package and the packages it depends on. Run this in the root of the repo:

pnpm run build:dev:filter @sentry/node # or any other SDK package

Linking packages

In your test project, run pnpm link with the path to the SDK package:

pnpm link /path/to/sentry-javascript/packages/node

You only need to link the SDK package that your project imports. Its dependencies (e.g. @sentry/core) resolve from the monorepo, so they are also the local versions. If your project also imports a dependency directly (e.g. @sentry/core), that import still uses the version from the registry. Link that package too.

pnpm link adds a link: override to the pnpm-workspace.yaml of your test project. If the file does not exist, pnpm link creates it. Do not commit this override.

Updating packages

The link points to the build/ folder of the package. After a code change, rebuild the package and restart your test project. You do not need to link again.

# in the package you changed, e.g. packages/core
pnpm run build:transpile

Unlinking packages

In your test project, run pnpm unlink with the package name. This removes the link: override and installs the registry version again.

pnpm unlink @sentry/node

In pnpm 10, pnpm unlink shows "Nothing to unlink" and does not remove the override. Remove the override for the package from pnpm-workspace.yaml manually, then run pnpm install.

Troubleshooting

My test project still uses the registry version

Make sure that node_modules/@sentry/node in your test project is a symlink to the monorepo:

ls -la node_modules/@sentry/node

If you run Node.js or your bundler with --preserve-symlinks, dependencies resolve from the node_modules of your test project and not from the monorepo. Do not use this flag.

My test project uses Vite and I still don't see changes

Vite pre-bundles and caches dependencies for dev builds. Run vite dev --force to clear the cache.