feat: add min-release-age

[wraithgar]

This is a new config that is a way to populate the "before" config using a relative date integer.

This deceptively small change was the result of a LOT of work to get to this point, primarily from these authors and PRs...

Credit:
@kaezone - #8802
@PR3C14D0 - #8825

[wraithgar]

Config does all the heavy lifting here, making sure --before and --min-release-age are exclusive, and flattening --min-release-age into a before value that npm is already using:

$ # entered on feb 6 2026
$ node . config list --min-release-age=30
; "cli" config from command line options

before = "2026-01-07T17:45:11.360Z"

We will probably want to add a specific test so that we are sure that the relative calculation works as expected, but that can come after we get a quick check from those involved in the discussion.

[wraithgar]

IF YOU WOULD LIKE CREDIT for helping with this please comment in this issue to be added to the credit list. I did not write this alone.

[owlstronaut]

🥳

[PR3C14D0]

IF YOU WOULD LIKE CREDIT for helping with this please comment in this issue to be added to the credit list. I did not write this alone.

Would like to be contributor hahahaha

Thanks for the implementation and credits @wraithgar!

[wraithgar]

@PR3C14D0 you are listed as a contributor with a link to your PR already! This PR title and body will be the commit body and comment. If you would like a different link for attribution let me know.

[PR3C14D0]

@PR3C14D0 you are listed as a contributor with a link to your PR already! This PR title and body will be the commit body and comment. If you would like a different link for attribution let me know.

Right, so, everything is perfect. Thanks!

[kaezone]

Haha, was gonna look at doing the same thing when I woke up, ah timezones :)

Looks great, thanks for the credit!

[yeikel]

I am late to the discussion and may have missed prior context or threads, so apologies if this has already been covered. This question comes from both curiosity and a real use case.

From the diff, it seems the decision was made not to allow excluding packages. That’s fine, but it does conflict with a common workflow: being strict with third-party dependencies while remaining more lenient with internally maintained packages. In that scenario, the lack of an exclusion option is a bit unfortunate.

My understanding is that #8825 included support for this. Was there a particular reason it was ultimately not carried forward? Or will that support be added in a potential future release?