NPM: npm-cli.js not found when running npm

Question

Usually I can install a library using npm but today when installing yeoman I encountered this errors. Please help to figure out what's root cause.

D:\Works\phonegap\ionic\todo>npm install -g yo
    module.js:340
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:338:15)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:280:25)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
at startup (node.js:119:16)
at node.js:906:3

I looked into the folder:

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\

but don't see node_modules folder as the error described.

I also try to find npm-cli.js and see it's actually in C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\

Sorry, I forgot have reinstalled node to fix this error so there's no node_modules folder now. But before that I also checked C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node_mod ules\ but didn't see npm folder in it. — user1192476, Jul 13 '14 at 11:00
Well, I guess somebody may need this tip: click the node.js installer, and choose "repair", so the error was resolved. — vainquit, May 29 '21 at 12:08

score 154 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 13 '19 at 23:07

154

It turns out the issue is due to the wrong path of node in system variable. The path is currently pointing to

(I really don't know when I modified it)

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin

so I change to

C:\Program Files\nodejs

and it works like a charm.

edited Jul 13 '19 at 23:07

CodeWizard

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answered Jul 14 '14 at 16:56

user1192476

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Had the same problem. Never changed the path, so I am guessing that this must have happened when I upgraded Node. – Nils Magne Lunde Aug 26 '14 at 11:30
I think for me the issue start to happen when I installed Electron :( – Charles Walker Jul 15 '17 at 15:53
5

where did you change this? what file? – CodeToad Nov 27 '17 at 15:39
1

Enviroment variables. – Crozeta Apr 02 '18 at 18:18
On the latest version, after upgrading, you might see both paths on your environment variables, and the old one (C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\npm) takes precedence over the new one (C:\Program Files\nodejs\). Removing the former solves the issue for me. – Shahroq Aug 08 '20 at 08:47
Yup. This worked for me. I don't know why though is NodeJS setting the path that doesn't work during installation. – Dame Lyngdoh Apr 20 '21 at 04:58
for me, it happend when I installed `heroku-git` – Shivam Sharma May 28 '21 at 05:27
1

If you're working with **vs-code**, do not forget to **close every instance** after having changed the path ;) – Raphaël Balet Jun 14 '21 at 13:15
In my system variable (windows) there's nothing about "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin" I just repaired NodeJS like @3AK said and it was all good – Pablo LION Oct 28 '21 at 21:07

score 62 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 04 '16 at 10:59

62

You need to run this in the command line.

SET PATH=C:\Program Files\Nodejs;%PATH%

edited Nov 04 '16 at 10:59

Pang

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answered Feb 29 '16 at 23:45

Prathap Kudupu

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bash shell in windows – Prathap Kudupu Mar 01 '18 at 00:34
I had this issue when I upgraded my version of node. Your solution worked for me perfectly. I didn't have to delete any `node_modules` folder – AllJs Jul 23 '18 at 07:13
I had to move this path further up to give it higher precedence after attempting to update npm using npm (npm -i npm). – Corey Alix May 15 '19 at 12:39
this worked for me – osama Jul 13 '23 at 10:53

score 60 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 26 '18 at 08:59

60

I just repaired my NodeJS installation and it worked for me!

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features --> find NodeJS and choose option repair to repair it. Hope this helps.

answered Mar 26 '18 at 08:59

3AK

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This worked for me, but it's called "apps and features" on windows 10. – PeonProgrammer Apr 14 '19 at 16:01
There was no npm folder in node_modules in my case and all I did was executing a command `npm install express`, repairing it helped. – Lalit Fauzdar Mar 11 '20 at 09:19
Thank you for this! my issue was resolved after repairing Nodejs under 'apps and features' on my windows pc! – missjcohen Oct 09 '20 at 01:28
3

This answer should be higher up the list. Thank you! – mfisher91 Jan 08 '21 at 10:19
Agreed. Also nice to know that feature exists in Windows 10 - so thanks to PeonProgrammer for that... – user2403232 Jan 15 '21 at 03:42
This worked for me, but I could not find how to repair it from "Apps and Features." Instead, I had to open the node installer. There's a Repair button at the beginning – Daniel Kaplan Sep 23 '21 at 01:30
+1 because this is the closest solution to the one that fixed the issue for me. Except I am using NVM, so my solution was a sequence of `nvm uninstall`, `nvm install` and `nvm use`. – Neptilo May 20 '22 at 09:09
In my case npm removed itself every time I installed any package. Had to add npm itself in the package.json dependencies to to tell it that npm is required too and to stop it from removing itself :) – Taras Jul 31 '23 at 18:13

score 29 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 02 '15 at 20:05

29

You may also have this problem if in your path you have C:\Program Files\nodejs and C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin. Remove the latter from the path

edited Jul 02 '15 at 20:05

Rory McCrossan

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answered Jul 02 '15 at 19:42

Peter Sun

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in the path where? – CodeToad Nov 27 '17 at 15:38

score 29 · Answer 5 · edited Mar 12 '19 at 19:36

29

Copy the directory named npm from your installed node path (In my case the npm directory was available in C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules).

Navigate to C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules and paste the copied npm directory there.

This method worked for me when I had the same error. . .

edited Mar 12 '19 at 19:36

MBehtemam

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answered Jul 07 '18 at 12:15

Manoj

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Thank you, this worked great after an upgrade messed up my NPM installation and repair and reinstall didn't fix it. – Slbox Jul 11 '18 at 20:08
In which files we want to make this change.Please guide – Ibad Shaikh Nov 07 '20 at 10:10

score 20 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 29 '17 at 08:46

This not the same case as in the question, but might be helpful for someone facing the similar issue. On Windows, if you are calling npm commands from some CI/automation tool, you might run into the error:

Error: Cannot find module 'SOME_PATH\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

where SOME_PATH is not Program Files/... but some project directory instead. So npm tries to find npm-cli.js inside the project root directory instead of searching it in Program Files/nodejs.

The reason is npm.cmd script:

:: Created by npm, please don't edit manually.
@ECHO OFF

SETLOCAL

SET "NODE_EXE=%~dp0\node.exe"
IF NOT EXIST "%NODE_EXE%" (
  SET "NODE_EXE=node"
)


SET "NPM_CLI_JS=%~dp0\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js"
FOR /F "delims=" %%F IN ('CALL "%NODE_EXE%" "%NPM_CLI_JS%" prefix -g') DO (
  SET "NPM_PREFIX_NPM_CLI_JS=%%F\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js"
)
IF EXIST "%NPM_PREFIX_NPM_CLI_JS%" (
  SET "NPM_CLI_JS=%NPM_PREFIX_NPM_CLI_JS%"
)

"%NODE_EXE%" "%NPM_CLI_JS%" %*

This script uses %~dp0 to lookup the npm-cli.js but some automation tools could set work directory in the way that %~dp0 points to the local project dir so the script works incorrectly.

One possible solution could be changing the npm calls from this

npm.cmd install

to this

cmd.exe /c npm.cmd install

If you need to set the WorkingDirectory to run the install command in a specific directory this does not solve the problem — Daniel Fisher lennybacon, Mar 28 '18 at 07:58
What worked for me is to run a change directory with the npm command afterwards: "cmd.exe" /c cd /d "T:\TfsAgent\_work\1\s\src\WebHost\" && "C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.cmd" install — Daniel Fisher lennybacon, Mar 28 '18 at 08:39

score 15 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 29 '18 at 19:24

15

I encountered the same problem with node 8.5 when installed with nvm. The below solution worked for me

$ nvm uninstall 8.5
8.5.0
Uninstalling node v8.5.0...Error removing node v8.5.0
Manually remove C:\Users\Omkar\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v8.5.0.

$ nvm install 8.5
8.5.0
Downloading node.js version 8.5.0 (64-bit)...
Complete
Creating C:\Users\Omkar\AppData\Roaming\nvm\temp

Downloading npm version 5.3.0... Complete
Installing npm v5.3.0...

Installation complete. If you want to use this version, type

nvm use 8.5.0

Omkar@VAST-0137 MINGW64 /d/code

This worked for me cause node 8.5 was not correctly installed before with nvm. I figured it out cause "npm\bin\npm-cli.js" folders and files were not created inside node_modules before.

answered Mar 29 '18 at 19:24

olagu

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2

My path looked OK; Uninstall/Reinstall resolved the issue for me. – Mark Maslar Aug 18 '18 at 20:03
I had some weird issues with old node even when I switched to newer version. So I uninstalled old node and reinstalled new again. By this way I fixed the issue with cli :) thanks – Andrej Gaspar Dec 21 '18 at 14:14
Same thing, my path was OK and I'm using NVM to switch between node versions for my projects. nvm install 8.11 said it worked but for some reasons not : the node_modules directory was empty, so npm didn't worked. doing nvm uninstall 8.11 then agaon nvm install 8.11 fixed it! – TooLiPHoNe.NeT May 03 '21 at 09:08

score 14 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 20 '18 at 10:16

14

This started happening for me after I installed GoogleChrome/puppeteer, the solution was to re-install npm:

$ npm i npm@latest

or

$ npm install npm@latest

edited Mar 20 '18 at 10:16

Daniel Fisher lennybacon

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answered Mar 20 '18 at 02:41

mythz

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Avoid this. Your node version should be in sync with npm version for better support. Even though npm will say otherwise when ran. Upgrade both together or keep the version installed together. Unless you are just testing / checking things out. Likewise with puppeteer (my upgrade related to puppeteer as well). – TamusJRoyce Jun 15 '22 at 20:47

score 9 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 12 '16 at 09:26

9

None of the other answers worked for me.

Here is what I write (in a git bash shell on windows ):

PATH="/c/Program Files/nodejs/:$PATH" npm run yeoman

answered Apr 12 '16 at 09:26

edi9999

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score 7 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 14 '14 at 17:00

7

On a Mac:

I was running this out of the Maven com.github.eirslett Frontend Plugin when I had the same error.

Eventually I had to:

Install Node.js via the installer download here: http://nodejs.org/

Delete all the node/ and node_modules/ folders from within my maven build structure.

answered Nov 14 '14 at 17:00

RedYeti

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2

Looks like this was fixed with newer versions of the frontend plugin: https://github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/issues/147 – Noremac Apr 18 '16 at 15:05
For me I just had to reinstall node. Thank you! – ElDiabolo Dec 07 '20 at 10:21

score 6 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 31 '16 at 14:01

6

In addition to above I had to remove C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\npm also. This helped.

answered Dec 31 '16 at 14:01

Romko

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On my system that's where global packages reside; if you remove it from the path then you may no longer be able to run gulp, etc. – TrueWill Jul 06 '17 at 20:04

TARJU · Answer 12 · 2018-07-20T05:13:32.163

6

Don't change any environment variables

It was the installer which caused the issue and did not install all the required file.

I just repaired the NODEJS setup on windows 7 and it works very well. May be you can reinstall, just incase something does not work.

edited Jul 20 '18 at 05:13

answered Jan 03 '18 at 11:09

TARJU

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score 5 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 31 '17 at 12:42

There are actually 2 paths which was added to your System's Variable when upgrading to nodejs latest version.
1. C:\Program Files\nodejs
2. C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin
For windows 7/8/8.1 users, they will not have an Environment Variables Windows 10 smart GUI.
Anyway, all you have to do is search for "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin" and remove it.
Also, remove "C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\npm" from your environment variables. I am posting this answer because I wasted my 10hrs searching for the solution on internet. By combining the above answer I finally make it through the problem.

score 5 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 11 '18 at 02:20

5

I had the same issue on windows. I just repaired Node and it worked fine after a restart of the command on windows.

answered Dec 11 '18 at 02:20

Hello Universe

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Julio Peguero · Answer 15 · 2019-10-06T14:47:23.300

On Windows 10:

Press windows key, type edit the system environment variables then enter.
Click environment variables...
On the lower half of the window that opened with title Environment Variables there you will see a table titled System Variables, with two columns, the first one titled variable.
Find the row with variable Path and click it.
Click edit which will open a window titled Edit evironment variable.
Here if you find

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin

select it, and click edit button to your right, then edit the field to the path where you have the nodejs folder, in my case it was just shortening it to :

C:\Program Files\nodejs

Then I closed all my cmd or powershell terminals, opened them again and npm was working.

score 3 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 02 '18 at 20:44

3

None of the solutions here worked for me but after I restarted my system and did npm install again, it worked. I would guess one or more processes I ran before held unto it.

Simple PC restart on Windows 10 did the magic for me!

answered Feb 02 '18 at 20:44

papigee

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Worked for me as well! Error started probably after a Win10 update – Arno van Oordt Jun 26 '20 at 06:52

score 3 · Answer 17 · answered Mar 04 '18 at 20:32

In my case, I was using nvm-windows 1.1.6 , and I updated my nodejs version using nvm install latest, which eventually told me that nodejs and npm are installed, however when I tried to do npm install, I received

Error: Cannot find module 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

upon checking nvm-windows structure, I found that C:\Program Files\nodejs was symlinked to %APPDATA%\nvm\NODE_VERSION, (NODE_VERSION was v9.7.1 in my case) which has the folder node_modules having nothing inside, caused this error. The solution was to copy the npm folder from one of my previous versions' node_modules folder and paste it in. I then updated my npm with npm install npm@next -g and everything started working again.

score 2 · Answer 18 · answered Nov 27 '19 at 09:06

I know it is an older post but as I write this the version of Node js is 12.13.1. People face this generally because they might have already installed a previous version of Node js which added the following to the system path.

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin

However, the newer versions need to add the following:-

C:\Program Files\nodejs

I mean to say the path where you installed the Nodejs. The default is

C:\Program Files\nodejs

However, if you gave a different location you should point it to that.

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 27 '18 at 23:07

1

just run this command :

npm i npm@latest -g

answered Jul 27 '18 at 23:07

AissaDevLab

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Welcome to Stack Overflow! Could you elaborate on what this does and how it answers the question? – anothernode Jul 28 '18 at 13:28
Avoid this. Your node version should be in sync with npm version for better support. Even though npm will say otherwise when ran. Upgrade both together or keep the version installed together. Unless you are just testing / checking things out. – TamusJRoyce Jun 15 '22 at 20:46

score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 11 '19 at 12:29

1

npm install -g npm@[version] fixed the problem

answered Mar 11 '19 at 12:29

repo

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score 1 · Answer 21 · edited Dec 18 '19 at 14:36

1

For guys still coming around this thread:

install node from official site (check npm and node version to check whether installed properly, yes in a new terminal/cmd);
install nvm now and when prompt to whether manage current node with nvm click yes;
open new cmd and run nvm on.

edited Dec 18 '19 at 14:36

Marco Lackovic

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answered Sep 03 '19 at 11:27

Keshav Sharma

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You don't need to install Node from the official site with nvm: you can install the latest version of Node with nvm running `nvm install latest`. – Marco Lackovic Dec 18 '19 at 15:08

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Oct 10 '17 at 08:54

0

Solution for me in VS2017 (Under Tools | Options ... )

I changed the path to: C:\Program Files\nodejs

answered Oct 10 '17 at 08:54

Michael Maier

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score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Nov 02 '17 at 12:37

I run into this problem when installing node9.0.0 on windows7 at the end the solution was to just remove npm npm.cmd npx npx.cmd from C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin before doing this a workaround was to run C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm so that is one way so see if you have the same problem I had.

score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Jan 20 '18 at 21:01

0

create a npm folder manually inside node_modules and rerun the installer with repair options. It copies the missing files.

answered Jan 20 '18 at 21:01

Saurabh Nainwal

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score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Mar 25 '18 at 19:42

0

For me none of the above worked, I just noticed that every time I do a "npm install..." any npm command just stop working. So every install I do, I have to run the NodeJS installation programme and select "repair". Until I find a real solution :)

answered Mar 25 '18 at 19:42

Olivier

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It is good to post solutions and also we appreciate this..But it wold be better if u explain logically rather than saying it **Magically worked** :) – Software Dev Mar 25 '18 at 21:11

score 0 · Answer 26 · edited Jul 14 '19 at 16:34

0

Updating NPM to the latest version worked for me:

npm install npm@latest -g

edited Jul 14 '19 at 16:34

double-beep

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answered Jul 14 '19 at 16:11

zylo

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score 0 · Answer 27 · answered Sep 03 '19 at 19:12

0

Change the environment path variable C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin and open the command terminal and npm -v and

answered Sep 03 '19 at 19:12

lokesh sharma

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score 0 · Answer 28 · answered May 12 '20 at 08:07

I encountered the exact same problem today in a Linux server. And the reason is really simple as I didn't do make install after make and tried to directly call the generated npm. Thus the PATH and everything was a mess.

So for me, the solution is just to do make install after make and run the npm under .node/bin/npm.

score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Nov 04 '20 at 15:32

Error: Cannot find module 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

Look at the above and it is obvious that the path has issue. 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js' SHOULD BE CHANGED TO--> 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js' which means that "\node_modules\npm\bin" in between was duplicated, which caused such a stupid error. I fixed it by editing the System Variable and updated the PATH as described above.

score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Dec 05 '20 at 05:13

0

Same Issue.

Resolved by copying the missing files from

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\bin

to

C:\Users\UserName\node_modules\npm\bin

The missing files are

npm
npm.cmd
npm-cli.js
npx
npx.cmd
npx-cli.js

answered Dec 05 '20 at 05:13

Leslie Wong

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honestly this is such a good hack. I spent ages trying to fix what was wrong for this to work – momal May 30 '22 at 06:16

score 0 · Answer 31 · answered May 04 '21 at 17:40

0

go to https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v10.x/ and download zip file

open zip file and copy node_module\npm in C:\Users\foo\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v10.19.0\node_modules\np

answered May 04 '21 at 17:40

Yoel

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score 0 · Answer 32 · answered Aug 23 '21 at 03:25

For anyone that would be have this problem. I can say that, in my case i discover that problem is happening when i'm running the installer from a different partition to windows was installed.

So when i reinstall using nvm-setup.exe from C: partition, all is installed an npm is finded without problems!!, no need to modify enviroment variables in my win10.

I know that this looks crazy, but i think that this can be usefull to developers resolve this issue, or anyone need help for this now.

bye.

score 0 · Answer 33 · answered Oct 14 '21 at 07:50

For anyone comming searching for something like Error: Cannot find module 'C:\ [Your Project Path] \node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

Try manually removing (rightclick - delete (send to recycle bin)) the node_modules folder in your project and then run a npm ci. It can be that the problem is in fact the project was not correctly installed and then npm ci will not completely remove this, just go hardcore on it.

score 0 · Answer 34 · answered Mar 08 '22 at 12:10

0

For me worked simple delete in project folder node_modules then npm install

answered Mar 08 '22 at 12:10

Dima Malko

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score 0 · Answer 35 · answered May 07 '22 at 09:26

0

I met the same issue before, caused by the additional npm path setting in path variable of the system Environment Variables. Just delete it, only keep the node path is enough.

answered May 07 '22 at 09:26

danny

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score 0 · Answer 36 · answered Sep 11 '22 at 09:19

I tried all these solutions, but unfortunately, I keep getting the same error again and again, but I found a solution that works for me perfectly. So, I would like to share it maybe benefit someone who has the same situation as me. I discovered that the reason why I keep getting this error is that there is space in my username, so to fix the issue upgrade NVM to the latest version, which resolves the space and special character issues. by below steps:

Download the latest version from here https://sourceforge.net/projects/nvm-for-windows.mirror/
Complete the installation
Restart your machine

score 0 · Answer 37 · answered Jan 09 '23 at 02:45

0

I use nvm to manage my nodejs versions, so I use nvm use 12 and then it works.

answered Jan 09 '23 at 02:45

NOZUONOHIGH

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score 0 · Answer 38 · answered Feb 02 '23 at 19:16

as other answer says: the path was changed somehow

situation

was downloading something using npm install (using Win10)
pressed ^c to force stop it (cuz too slow)
retried npm install -> error popup Error: Cannot find module 'G:\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

solution

find the npm-cli.js file (by using a software call Everything)
discovery that the npm folder name was changed to .npm-GFyCv1zc (guess a temporary file during network download)
rename that file back to npm
rerun npm install -> works fine

score 0 · Answer 39 · answered May 31 '23 at 01:59

Go to Settings > About your PC. Looking for the Advanced system settings below Related settings title.

When the window opened, choose Advandced tab > Environment Variables. In the User variables for [PC-name] box. Looking for the 'PATH' variable (create one if not existed, by clicking New...) and edit that variable's value is your nodejs folder. In my case it is 'C:\Program Files\nodejs'.

This worked for me !

score -5 · Answer 40 · edited Feb 14 '22 at 23:26

I experienced this same issue when installing Node version manager (NVM) on Windows 10.

Whenever I run the command:

npm install -g yarn

I was getting the error below:

Error: Cannot find module 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js'

Here's how I fixed it:

The issue was that the components of the Node installation that the Node version manager (NVM) was pointing to were not present on the computer.

So to fix this, go to https://nodejs.org/dist/ and then download the zip file of the distribution that you want. In my case it was https://nodejs.org/dist/v14.15.4/node-v14.15.4-win-x64.zip

Next, extract the zip file and copy it into the C:\Node\nvm\14.15.4\node_modules\npm directory Or the directory of your node version.

Now when you run npm install -g yarn it should run fine.

The edit from @E_net4TheCurator was fine - we prefer not to add voting advice/commentary here. — halfer, Feb 14 '22 at 23:27

NPM: npm-cli.js not found when running npm

40 Answers40

situation

solution

Linked

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