How To Get Babel Working In A Github Action?

I'm trying to run a GitHub Action which runs javascript ES6 code. Previously, I
was getting an 'unexpected token' error on the 'export' keyword in the target javascript file (en.js), so I tried getting Babel to transpile it first.

With babel-cli successfully loaded in the workflow, the Action error is:

Run npx babel ./src/localization --out-dir ./.github/workflows/babel-output
Error: Requires Babel "^7.0.0-0", but was loaded with "6.26.3". If you are sure you have a 
a compatible version of @babel/core, it is likely that something in your build process is loading the wrong version.

and if I try to install Babel 7, the error is:

Run npm install -g --legacy-peer-deps babel@^7.0.0-0
npm ERR! code ETARGET
npm ERR! notarget No matching version found for babel@^7.0.0-0.
npm ERR! notarget In most cases you or one of your dependencies are requesting a package version that doesn't exist.

Can anyone suggest a way to proceed?

the workflow yml file is:

name: Compare Localization Keys
on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - localization_keys_comparison2
  push:
    branches:
      - localization_keys_comparison2

jobs:
  compare_keys:
    name: Compare Localization Keys
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Get Code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: "18"

      - name: Add dependency
        run: yarn add @actions/core

      - name: Add dependency
        run: yarn add flat

        #it needs babel ^7 - 6.xx detected
      - name: Uninstall Wrong Babel Version
        run: npm uninstall -g babel

      #- name: Install Babel 7
      #run: yarn add babel@^7.0.0
      #run: npm install -g --legacy-peer-deps babel@^7.0.0-0

      - name: Install Babel Cli
        #run: yarn add --global babel-cli
        run: npm install --legacy-peer-deps --global babel-cli

      - name: Transpile JavaScript with Babel
        run: npx babel ./src/localization --out-dir ./.github/workflows/babel-output

      - name: Run comparison javascript file
        run: node --trace-warnings --experimental-modules ./.github/compare_localization_keys.js

The compare_localization_keys.js file (above) references the intended transpiled en.js file in the babel-output folder, but we haven't successfully gotten that far in the workflow yet.

the .babelrc file is:

{
  "presets": ["@babel/preset-env"]
} 

the en.js file is:

export const en = {
  common: {
    loading: "Loading...",
//.. other object properties
  },
};

The overall aim is to create a GitHub Action that compares two objects from JavaScript files.

Any comments or suggestions would be very gratefully received.

There's no need for Babel if you set type: module in your package.json and aren't using any non-standard syntax.

If you do want to babelify, the babel package is deprecated, there is no v7. Use @babel/cli, @babel/core, and @babel/preset-env. @babel/cli provides the command (npx babel src ...etc). Aim to have them all on a similar version (for example npm i @babel/cli@latest @babel/core@latest @babel/preset-env@latest, or @babel/cli@7.22.10, and so on).