# Pinned Node, npm, pnpm and Python versions > How AQ cloud machines honor .node-version, .nvmrc, packageManager and .python-version for each work item without sudo, and what a repository with no pins gets. Published November 10, 2026 · by the AQ team · Canonical: https://aq.dev/docs/machine-toolchain/ AQ cloud machines run the versions your repository pins, for each work item, with no sudo. A repository without pins gets the machine's own tools, exactly as before. ## What AQ reads - `.node-version` or `.nvmrc`: an exact version such as `24.16.0`, or a major such as `22`. Node comes from nodejs.org, checked against its published checksums. - `packageManager` in package.json: `npm@11.19.0` installs that npm; `pnpm@10.28.2` or `yarn@...` runs through corepack when the machine has no pnpm or yarn of its own (an installed pnpm already follows the field). - `.python-version`: an exact version such as `3.12.13`, or `3.12`. Python is installed with uv, and comes with `pip` and `venv`. The nearest file to the directory a command runs in wins, up to the top of the checkout. ## Where they apply When a work item's dependencies are installed, AQ fills one directory for it, `~/.aq-runtime/toolchains//bin`, and puts it first on PATH for the setup command, the preview, services, terminals and commands you run from the composer. Each version is downloaded once per person and reused by every later work item. Agents are told where the directory is and use it for the commands they run. A pin AQ cannot honor (offline, an end-of-life Node, a value that is not a version) leaves the machine's tool in place, with one line in the Log tab saying why. ## On every machine `python3 -m venv` and `pip` work for every Python 3 on the machine. A virtual environment you activate still comes first. Background: [runners and infrastructure](https://aq.dev/docs/runners-and-infrastructure/). --- About AQ: AQ is the multiplayer coding harness where teams build and run bots with every AI coding agent, like Claude Code and Codex: reviewed pull requests, live app previews, Genie and standing jobs, on private cloud machines of their own. Start at [aq.dev](https://aq.dev/).