Let’s cut to the chase — your CI isn’t actually authenticating you before npm publish, so npm falls back to “you’re not logged in.”

1. Use actions/setup-node’s built-in auth
   Let the action write your token into ~/.npmrc (and skip committing your own). You do this by setting the scope, registry-url and passing your NODE_AUTH_TOKEN at the job level so it’s available during setup.

2. Remove (or ignore) your repo-level .npmrc
   A rogue, un-templated .npmrc in your repo can override the one setup-node creates.

3. Verify with npm whoami
   Add a quick check right before publish to prove you’re authenticated.

name: Publish to NPM

on:
  workflow_run:
    workflows: ["Reversion"]
    types: [completed]

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    # make the token available to ALL steps (including setup-node)
    env:
      NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.NPM_TOKEN }}

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node.js & auth
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '18.x'
          registry-url: 'https://registry.npmjs.org'
          scope: '@dev-dae'        # <-- your package scope
          always-auth: true       # <-- ensure scoped packages always use auth

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci

      - name: Verify npm login
        run: npm whoami
        # if this prints your npm username, auth is working

      # - name: Build package
      #   run: npm run build

      - name: Publish to npm
        run: npm publish --access public

scope + registry-url tells setup-node to write an @dev-dae:registry=… stanza into ~/.npmrc. always-auth: true forces all requests (including scoped publishes) to use the token. By exporting NODE_AUTH_TOKEN at the job level, setup-node picks it up automatically — no manual echo or custom .npmrc required. The npm whoami step is your smoke test: if it errors, you know something’s still wrong with the token or scope.

If you ever do see a downvote, I’ll flag it with you constructively — no silent punishments here. Let’s focus on getting your pipeline green.