Pnpm package manager compatibility issue

I have reproduced the issue on the latest CLI version.

Yes, I am on the latest version

I have searched existing posts and this report is not a duplicate.

Yes, this isn’t a duplicate

In which of these areas are you experiencing a problem?

App

Expected behavior

After finishing the app scaffold, pnpm asked for build approvals. and it will be prompt for options. And after selecting the options, the scaffolding should be done.

Actual behavior

After completely downloading the scaffold app template. It asked for pnpm build approvals. But the cli ended its job. And as a result, the project folder appears empty.

Reproduction steps

There should be a prompt as pnpm does. The cli should do that.

Verbose output

[ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS] Ignored build scripts: @parcel/watcher@2.5.6,
@prisma/client@6.19.3, @prisma/engines@6.19.3, esbuild@0.25.12, prisma@6.19.3,
unrs-resolver@1.12.2

Run “pnpm approve-builds” to pick which dependencies should be allowed to run
scripts.

Operating system

Windows 10

CLI version

4.3.0

Shell

cmd

Nodejs version

24.17.0

What language and version are you using in your application?

Node 24.17.0

Hey @Md_Abdullah -

Thanks for flagging this. This looks like it’s possible pnpm build-approval behaviour being surfaced during shopify app init.

The key part from what I can see is this error:

ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS
Run "pnpm approve-builds" to pick which dependencies should be allowed to run scripts.

pnpm is blocking unreviewed dependency build scripts, which is part of its supply-chain security model. Since Shopify CLI runs pnpm install during app creation, the init flow stops when pnpm exits with that error.

The practical workaround is to initialize with another package manager first:

shopify app init --template=reactRouter --name=<app-name> --package-manager=npm

Then, if you want the project to use pnpm afterward, you can switch the generated app over to pnpm and run the pnpm approval flow from inside the project.

You can also manage this through pnpm’s build approval settings directly, but the important thing is that the packages with build scripts need to be explicitly reviewed/approved or denied for pnpm to proceed under its stricter defaults.

Hope this helps clarify what’s happening here.