pnpmlockyaml

pnpmlockyaml is a proposed or hypothetical lockfile format used to record the exact resolution of dependencies in plug-and-play (PnP) package ecosystems that rely on YAML for data serialization. It is not a standard artifact in major package managers today and should be considered experimental or hypothetical.

A pnpmlockyaml file would typically be authored in YAML and include a top-level lockfileVersion, a root entry for the project, and a packages map that lists each resolved package by its specifier (name@version) with metadata such as resolution (where the package was fetched from), integrity (a cryptographic hash), and a dependencies map enumerating its direct dependencies.

The primary purpose would be to enable deterministic installs by pinning exact package trees, enabling reproducible builds across environments that use PnP-style resolution. Tools reading the lockfile would construct a virtual mapping from package identifiers to physical locations or to resolved tarballs, and verify integrity during installation.

In practice, most ecosystems rely on alternative formats such as npm's pnpm-lock.yaml or Yarn's yarn.lock, which use JSON-based or specialized lock formats rather than YAML. Because pnpmlockyaml is not widely adopted, interoperability with existing package managers is limited.

Adoption remains limited and primarily of interest in experimental projects or systems exploring YAML-based lockfiles for PnP workflows. As with any lockfile, changes to the dependency graph require updating the lock to preserve reproducibility.

See also: pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, Plug and Play (PnP).