ci: Ensure stable npm packages are tagged as latest after release (backport to release-candidate/2.17.x)

[n8n-assistant]

Description

Backport of #28755 to release-candidate/2.17.x.

Checklist for the author (@Matsuuu) to go through.

• Review the backport changes
• Fix possible conflicts
• Merge to target branch

After this PR has been merged, it will be picked up in the next patch release for release track.

Original description

Summary

Adds a workflow and supporting scripts to ensure that stable npm packages in the monorepo are correctly tagged as latest on npm after a release.

What this does:

• Adds a new reusable workflow release-set-stable-npm-packages-to-latest.yml that checks out the stable tag, lists all public monorepo packages, and runs npm dist-tag add <pkg>@<version> latest for each.
• Adds a shared pnpm-utils.mjs helper to list monorepo packages via pnpm ls.
• Adds set-latest-for-monorepo-packages.mjs script that performs the actual dist-tag updates.
• Calls the new workflow from release-publish-post-release.yml on minor bumps or stable track releases.

Changes to existing release code:

• Publishing new version of package on stable track doesn't anymore set directly to "latest" but instead uses the track tag like other tracks.

How to test:
Run the release-set-stable-npm-packages-to-latest workflow manually via workflow_dispatch after a stable release, and verify npm packages have the latest dist-tag pointing to the stable version.

Related Linear tickets, Github issues, and Community forum posts

https://linear.app/n8n/issue/CAT-2847

Review / Merge checklist

• I have seen this code, I have run this code, and I take responsibility for this code.
• PR title and summary are descriptive. (conventions)
• Docs updated or follow-up ticket created.
• Tests included.
• PR Labeled with Backport to Beta, Backport to Stable, or Backport to v1 (if the PR is an urgent fix that needs to be backported)

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🤖 PR Summary generated by AI

[github-actions]

Performance Comparison

Comparing current → latest master → 14-day baseline

PR perf tests not yet enabled. Current = latest master run.

Memory consumption baseline with starter plan resources

Metric	Current	Latest Master	Baseline (avg)	vs Master	vs Baseline	Status
memory-heap-used-baseline	114.41 MB	114.41 MB	114.45 MB (σ 0.27)	+0.0%	-0.0%	✅
memory-rss-baseline	278.98 MB	278.98 MB	289.99 MB (σ 41.20)	+0.0%	-3.8%	✅

docker-stats

Metric	Current	Latest Master	Baseline (avg)	vs Master	vs Baseline	Status
docker-image-size-runners	386.00 MB	386.00 MB	392.50 MB (σ 11.06)	+0.0%	-1.7%	✅
docker-image-size-n8n	1269.76 MB	1269.76 MB	1273.60 MB (σ 10.49)	+0.0%	-0.3%	✅

Idle baseline with Instance AI module loaded

Metric	Current	Latest Master	Baseline (avg)	vs Master	vs Baseline	Status
instance-ai-heap-used-baseline	186.52 MB	186.52 MB	186.43 MB (σ 0.26)	+0.0%	+0.0%	✅
instance-ai-rss-baseline	389.20 MB	389.20 MB	366.52 MB (σ 22.66)	+0.0%	+6.2%	⚠️

How to read this table

• Current: This PR's value (or latest master if PR perf tests haven't run)
• Latest Master: Most recent nightly master measurement
• Baseline: Rolling 14-day average from master
• vs Master: PR impact (current vs latest master)
• vs Baseline: Drift from baseline (current vs rolling avg)
• Status: ✅ within 1σ | ⚠️ 1-2σ | 🔴 >2σ regression

[n8n-assistant]

Got released with [email protected]