`ensurePackageInstalled` kills the dev server on pnpm >= 10 even though the install succeeded (ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS)

Start in src/utils/dependencies.ts at ensurePackageInstalled and inspect how addDependency errors are handled. Reproduce the installation through nuxt dev with pnpm >= 10 and no better-sqlite3 dependency. Done means a successful dependency addition with ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS does not terminate the dev server.

Environment

• Operating System: Darwin (macOS 26.6.2, arm64)
• Node Version: v26.8.1
• Nuxt Version: 4.5.2
• Package Manager: pnpm@12.3.4
• Module: @nuxt/content@3.16.0

Version

3.16.0

Reproduction

1. Use pnpm >= 10 (build scripts are blocked by default).
2. Start a Nuxt project with @nuxt/content and no better-sqlite3 in package.json.
3. Run nuxt dev and answer Yes to the "Do you want to install better-sqlite3 package?" prompt.

Description

ensurePackageInstalled calls addDependency without guarding against a non-zero exit from the package manager (src/utils/dependencies.ts):

await addDependency(pkg, {
  cwd: tryUseNuxt()?.options.rootDir,
})

On pnpm >= 10, pnpm add better-sqlite3 succeeds at adding the dependency and then exits non-zero with ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS, because pnpm refuses to run a package's build scripts until they are approved. nypm surfaces that exit code as a throw, and the whole dev server dies:

dependencies:
+ better-sqlite3 13.0.3

Error: ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS

  × adding a new package
  ╰─▶ Ignored build scripts: better-sqlite3@13.0.3
  help: Run "pnpm approve-builds" to pick which dependencies should be allowed to run scripts.

 ERROR  pnpm add better-sqlite3 failed.

    at executeCommand (node_modules/.pnpm/nypm@0.6.9/node_modules/nypm/dist/index.mjs:79:28)
    at async addDependency (node_modules/.pnpm/nypm@0.6.9/node_modules/nypm/dist/index.mjs:380:28)
    at async ensurePackageInstalled (@nuxt/content/dist/module.mjs:230:5)
    at async findBestSqliteAdapter (@nuxt/content/dist/module.mjs:414:3)
    at async getDatabase (@nuxt/content/dist/module.mjs:302:17)
    at async getLocalDatabase (@nuxt/content/dist/module.mjs:310:63)
    at async processCollectionItems (@nuxt/content/dist/module.mjs:3347:14)
    at async initNuxt (nuxt/dist/index.mjs:7811:2)

The install genuinely worked — my lockfile records better-sqlite3: specifier ^13.0.3, version 13.0.3 and package.json was updated. Simply re-running nuxt dev starts fine. The crash and stack trace are pure noise.

This is especially gratuitous on better-sqlite3 v13, which needs no build step at all. v13 dropped the install script entirely, sets "gypfile": false, and ships prebuilt binaries for all 8 platforms in prebuilds/. I confirmed the freshly installed, never-built copy works:

$ node -e "const D=require('better-sqlite3'); console.log(new D(':memory:').prepare('select sqlite_version() v').get())"
{ v: '3.53.4' }

So nuxt-content aborted the dev server over a build that (a) had already effectively succeeded and (b) was never needed in the first place.

Additional context

Related but distinct from #3329, which was about better-sqlite3 v11 genuinely failing to compile, and was closed as stale. This report is narrower: the install succeeds and the module works, yet nuxt-content still exits.

Separately, and not a nuxt-content bug: after pnpm approve-builds, pnpm ran node-gyp rebuild on better-sqlite3 13.0.3 despite it having no install script and declaring "gypfile": false. pnpm appears to trigger on the presence of binding.gyp in the tarball and ignore gypfile: false. That fails with node-gyp: command not found, but is harmless since the prebuilt binary is already in place. Noting it only because it appears in the same log and could confuse triage.