https://skorelabs.medium.com/exclude-node-modules-folder-from-laravel-vapor-5da08b9f98d3

.gitlab.yml

stages:
  - build
  - deploy

yarn_install:
  stage: build
  cache:
    key: "${CI_PROJECT_ID}_yarn"
    policy: pull-push
    paths:
      - .yarn/cache
      - node_modules
  artifacts:
    expire_in: 30 mins
    paths:
      - node_modules
  image: node:lts-alpine
  before_script:
    # Some optional Yarn config...
    - yarn config set scripts-prepend-node-path auto
    - yarn config set ignore-scripts true
    - yarn config set ignore-optional true
  script:
    - yarn install --prefer-offline --frozen-lockfile --no-progress --check-files --ignore-engines
    
deploy:
  stage: deploy
  dependencies:
    - yarn_install
  image: <Your PHP with NodeJS Docker image here>
  script:
    - php vendor/bin/vapor deploy ${VAPOR_ENVIRONMENT} --commit="${CI_COMMIT_SHA}" --message="${CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE}"