If you want to add a new version of node, first create a directory with the revision number as the name (with the v prefix), and download from https://nodejs.org/dist/ the following:
Next, go to gradle/verification-metadata.xml and you will see in the file a block like this:
<component group="org.nodejs" name="node" version="16.20.2">
<artifact name="node-16.20.2-darwin-arm64.tar.gz">
<sha256 value="6a5c4108475871362d742b988566f3fe307f6a67ce14634eb3fbceb4f9eea88c" origin="Generated by Node" reason="Artifact is not signed. Remove when https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/53917 is resolved"/>
</artifact>
<artifact name="node-16.20.2-darwin-x64.tar.gz">
<sha256 value="d7a46eaf2b57ffddeda16ece0d887feb2e31a91ad33f8774da553da0249dc4a6" origin="Generated by Node" reason="Artifact is not signed. Remove when https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/53917 is resolved"/>
</artifact>
<artifact name="node-16.20.2-linux-x64.tar.gz">
<sha256 value="c9193e6c414891694759febe846f4f023bf48410a6924a8b1520c46565859665" origin="Generated by Node" reason="Artifact is not signed. Remove when https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/53917 is resolved"/>
</artifact>
</component>
Update the version, and artifact name ids to the ones downloaded (note that we remove the v prefix here). Next, replace the sha256 value in the xml for each artifact with the one from SHASUMS256.txt
Finally, update the node field ingradle/libs.versions.toml to the version you downloaded.