v3.1.0-node20 - What's new

Node.js 20

This release updates the runtime to Node.js 20. The previous v3.0.2 ran on Node.js 16, which has reached end-of-life. Now this action will run on Node.js 20.

What's Changed

• Upgrade @actions/artifact to 1.1.3 by @Link-
• Security updates for direct and transitive dependencies

Full Changelog: v3.0.2...v3.1.0-node20

v3.1.0 - What's new

Node.js 24

This release updates the runtime to Node.js 24. The previous v3.0.2 ran on Node.js 16, which has reached end-of-life. Now this action will run on Node.js 24.

Pin your workflows to: https://github.com/actions/download-artifact/releases/tag/v3.1.0-node20 which is available if you're still in the process of phasing out Node 20.

What's Changed

• Upgrade @actions/artifact to 1.1.3 by @Link-
• Security updates for direct and transitive dependencies

Full Changelog: v3.0.2...v3.1.0-node20

What's Changed

• Support for CJK characters in the artifact name by @danwkennedy in #471
• Add a regression test for artifact name + content-type mismatches by @danwkennedy in #472

Full Changelog: v8...v8.0.1

v8 - What's new

Direct downloads

To support direct uploads in actions/upload-artifact, the action will no longer attempt to unzip all downloaded files. Instead, the action checks the Content-Type header ahead of unzipping and skips non-zipped files. Callers wishing to download a zipped file as-is can also set the new skip-decompress parameter to true.

Enforced checks (breaking)

A previous release introduced digest checks on the download. If a download hash didn't match the expected hash from the server, the action would log a warning. Callers can now configure the behavior on mismatch with the digest-mismatch parameter. To be secure by default, we are now defaulting the behavior to error which will fail the workflow run.

ESM

To support new versions of the @actions/* packages, we've upgraded the package to ESM.

What's Changed

• Don't attempt to un-zip non-zipped downloads by @danwkennedy in #460
• Add a setting to specify what to do on hash mismatch and default it to error by @danwkennedy in #461

Full Changelog: v7...v8.0.0

v7 - What's new

Node.js 24

This release updates the runtime to Node.js 24. v6 had preliminary support for Node 24, however this action was by default still running on Node.js 20. Now this action by default will run on Node.js 24.

What's Changed

• Update GHES guidance to include reference to Node 20 version by @patrikpolyak in #440
• Download Artifact Node24 support by @salmanmkc in #415
• fix: update @actions/artifact to fix Node.js 24 punycode deprecation by @salmanmkc in #451
• prepare release v7.0.0 for Node.js 24 support by @salmanmkc in #452

New Contributors

• @patrikpolyak made their first contribution in #440
• @salmanmkc made their first contribution in #415

Full Changelog: v6.0.0...v7.0.0

What's Changed

BREAKING CHANGE: this update supports Node v24.x. This is not a breaking change per-se but we're treating it as such.

• Update README for download-artifact v5 changes by @yacaovsnc in #417
• Update README with artifact extraction details by @yacaovsnc in #424
• Readme: spell out the first use of GHES by @danwkennedy in #431
• Bump @actions/artifact to v4.0.0
• Prepare v6.0.0 by @danwkennedy in #438

New Contributors

• @danwkennedy made their first contribution in #431

Full Changelog: v5...v6.0.0

What's Changed

• Update README.md by @nebuk89 in #407
• BREAKING fix: inconsistent path behavior for single artifact downloads by ID by @GrantBirki in #416

v5.0.0

🚨 Breaking Change

This release fixes an inconsistency in path behavior for single artifact downloads by ID. If you're downloading single artifacts by ID, the output path may change.

What Changed

Previously, single artifact downloads behaved differently depending on how you specified the artifact:

• By name: name: my-artifact → extracted to path/ (direct)
• By ID: artifact-ids: 12345 → extracted to path/my-artifact/ (nested)

Now both methods are consistent:

• By name: name: my-artifact → extracted to path/ (unchanged)
• By ID: artifact-ids: 12345 → extracted to path/ (fixed - now direct)

Migration Guide

✅ No Action Needed If:

• You download artifacts by name
• You download multiple artifacts by ID
• You already use merge-multiple: true as a workaround

⚠️ Action Required If:

You download single artifacts by ID and your workflows expect the nested directory structure.

Before v5 (nested structure):

- uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
  with:
    artifact-ids: 12345
    path: dist
# Files were in: dist/my-artifact/

Where my-artifact is the name of the artifact you previously uploaded

To maintain old behavior (if needed):

- uses: actions/download-artifact@v5
  with:
    artifact-ids: 12345
    path: dist/my-artifact  # Explicitly specify the nested path

New Contributors

• @nebuk89 made their first contribution in #407

Full Changelog: v4...v5.0.0

What's Changed

• feat: implement new artifact-ids input by @GrantBirki in #401
• Fix workflow example for downloading by artifact ID by @joshmgross in #402
• Prep for v4.3.0 release by @robherley in #404

New Contributors

• @GrantBirki made their first contribution in #401

Full Changelog: v4.2.1...v4.3.0

What's Changed

• Add unit tests by @GhadimiR in #392
• Fix bug introduced in 4.2.0 by @GhadimiR in #391

Full Changelog: v4.2.0...v4.2.1

What's Changed

• Update README.md by @lkfortuna in #384
• Bump artifact version, do digest check by @GhadimiR in #383

New Contributors

• @lkfortuna made their first contribution in #384
• @GhadimiR made their first contribution in #383

Full Changelog: v4.1.9...v4.2.0