json-server is not recognized as an internal or external command

Question

I am setting up a json-server and I install it and assign it to be my npm start command like so

"scripts": {
    "start": "json-server -p 3001 -w db.json"

but every time I type npm start on the terminal I got this error

> api-server@1.0.0 start C:\Work\React-projects\streams\api-server
> json-server -p 3001 -w db.json

'json-server' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! api-server@1.0.0 start: `json-server -p 3001 -w db.json`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the api-server@1.0.0 start script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     C:\Users\Abdelaziz\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\_logs\2019-04-06T09_07_30_796Z-debug.log

@ArnaudChrist I tried everything ``` npm install -g json-server --save ``` — Abdelaziz Mohamed, Apr 06 '19 at 09:34
For people visiting.. you can directly use NPX to watch a json file without even installing json-server like so "npx json-server --watch ./data/filename.json" — Sagive, Jan 17 '22 at 15:53

score 131 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 11 '21 at 13:01

131

First, you need to check json-server installed globally or not. or you can install it globally by

npm install -g json-server

If you install it locally in your project, use npx to run it

npx json-server --watch db.json

Checkout difference between npx and npm here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/52018825/11285186

edited Dec 11 '21 at 13:01

Penny Liu

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answered Apr 06 '19 at 09:39

namth

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I installed it globally still not working, I tried npx it show this ( npx: installed 236 in 8.971s command not found: json-server ) – Abdelaziz Mohamed Apr 06 '19 at 09:48
Hi, you can run `npm list -g --depth 0` and check `json-server` in the list or not? – namth Apr 06 '19 at 09:49
I got this : C:\Users\Abdelaziz\AppData\Roaming\npm +-- create-react-app@2.1.8 +-- gulp-cli@2.1.0 +-- http-server@0.11.1 +-- json-server@0.14.2 +-- npm@6.9.0 `-- sudo@1.0.3 – Abdelaziz Mohamed Apr 06 '19 at 09:53
1

So, next step is check your PATH environment, make sure it has `C:\Users\Abdelaziz\AppData\Roaming\npm` – namth Apr 06 '19 at 09:59
did that several times and still have the same error – Abdelaziz Mohamed Apr 06 '19 at 10:02
try following `node "C:\Users\Abdelaziz\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\json-server\bin\index.js" -p 3001 -w db.json` – namth Apr 06 '19 at 10:07
nothing I can't even find bin directory in my json-server folders just lib,dist and nodes_modules – Abdelaziz Mohamed Apr 06 '19 at 10:16
i'm having the exact same problem. it worked for about a year now. all of a sudden, whatever i do: json-server command unknown – devman Jul 26 '19 at 11:31
Adding PATH environment fixed it for me – Donki Oct 22 '19 at 08:39

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 28 '20 at 09:59

First step you install the json server using the following command:
npm install -g json-server
Then, you can run the command and select the port using the following command:
npx json-server --watch -p 3333 server.json
Change 3333 to the port number you want and replace server.json with the name of your fake api.

In my case, I'm using React js and my server.json is at the root of my application.

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 18 '20 at 01:23

7

npm i -g json-server 

json-server --watch db.json

if this don't work

npm i -g json-server 

npx json-server --watch db.json

and this way works for mac

answered Dec 18 '20 at 01:23

Nafiz Bayrak

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 10 '20 at 06:51

3

Update the node.js version, Works on versions above node.js 10 versions.

answered Sep 10 '20 at 06:51

Salih ŞEKER

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 26 '21 at 02:58

I got into the Same Problem When I tried to add the json-server as a script in the package.json file so as to run it using

npm run start

got the error "json-server is not recognized as an internal or external command"

a quick solution is to Modify the scripts as

"scripts": { "start": "npx json-server -p 3001 -w db.json" }

another way is

"scripts": { "server" : "npx json-server --watch db.json --port 3001" }

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 13 '20 at 23:50

You can try :

npm i -g json-server
go to your application path example:\angular\TestApps\src\assets\mockdata>
run npx json-server --watch .\db.json Ex: here db.josn is my fake web api
this will run json server on http://localhost:3000/ without any issue

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered May 02 '21 at 05:05

The common mistake is not installing the json-sever package Globally !

What worked for me : I used the command :

npm install -g json-server

(-g is for globally installing a package)

For testing :

json-server --watch data/db.json --port 8000 (--watch is use to check for database file [here path - data data/db.json] and --port is used to set port manually [here 8000])

You can check data on port 8000 now,

http://localhost:8000/anything

(You can use npx also)

json-server is not recognized as an internal or external command

7 Answers7