npm ci can only install packages with an existing package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json with lockfileVersion >= 1

This is the issue that I am facing when running the command npm ci to install dependencies in my GitHub Action file.

I am working on an expo managed app and using GitHub Actions as a CI for triggering builds whenever I push my code to developmemt branch.

Here's my build script:

name: EAS PIPELINE
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - development
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    name: Install and build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          persist-credentials: false

      - name: Setup Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          node-version: 14.x

      - name: Setup Expo
        uses: expo/expo-github-action@v6
        with:
          expo-version: 4.x
          token: ${{ secrets.EXPO_TOKEN }}
          expo-cache: true

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Build on EAS
        run: EAS_BUILD_AUTOCOMMIT=${{1}} npx eas-cli build --platform all --non-interactive

Here's the issue that I am facing Install dependencies step.

Run npm ci
  npm ci
  shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
  env:
    EXPO_TOKEN: ***
npm ERR! cipm can only install packages with an existing package-lock.json or npm-shrinkwrap.json with lockfileVersion >= 1. Run an install with npm@5 or later to generate it, then try again.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/runner/.npm/_logs/2021-10-28T15_16_06_934Z-debug.log
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

After a lot of research, I was able to figure out that this happens when you are not using npm install for installing dependencies. In my case, I was only using yarn for the dependencies so I was only having yarn.lock file and no package-lock.json file.

• One way to resolve this was using npm install to install the dependencies, then you'll have a package-lock.json file and CI won't throw any error.

• And the other way if you only want to use yarn, then you need to update that step in your eas-pipeline.yml file for installing the dependencies.

*****************************************************************************************

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          if [ -e yarn.lock ]; then
          yarn install --frozen-lockfile
          elif [ -e package-lock.json ]; then
          npm ci
          else
          npm i
          fi

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As I wasn't able to find any solution on StackOverflow and it is our first go-to place to look for any issue. So, I decided to write this answer here.

Here's the original answer: https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/issues/2846#issuecomment-691706184