`ng add @angular/fire@canary` installs the release candidate instead of the canary build

[armando-navarro]

ng add @angular/fire@canary looks up the canary tag, then installs and saves the range ^<that version>, and npm installs the highest version in that range. Since #3767 every canary is named 21.0.0-canary.*, which ranks below 21.0.0-rc.1, so the command installs the release candidate. The ng add setup step then saves 21.0.0-rc.1 as an exact version.

Details

• Today: ng add @angular/fire@canary on an Angular 21 app installs 21.0.0-rc.1 and saves it exactly.
• After 21.0.0 ships: canaries are still named 21.0.0-canary.*, which rank below 21.0.0, so the same command installs 21.0.0.
• npm install @angular/fire@canary installs the canary but saves ^<canary>, so a later install without the lockfile moves to the release candidate.

Workaround

Pass the exact canary version, from npm view @angular/fire@canary version, to ng add, for example ng add @angular/fire@21.0.0-canary.20260930011755.sha-59d44e7.