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\

Polad

when you installed node? – Knish

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. – Polad

I have answer for this. Will post after 8 hours. Thanks. – Polad

Well, I guess somebody may need this tip: click the node.js installer, and choose "repair", so the error was resolved. – Pyrrolidine

Answer 1

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.

Polad

Had the same problem. Never changed the path, so I am guessing that this must have happened when I upgraded Node. – Cassy

I think for me the issue start to happen when I installed Electron :( – Canica

where did you change this? what file? – Telescope

Enviroment variables. – Abramabramo

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. – Catalogue

Yup. This worked for me. I don't know why though is NodeJS setting the path that doesn't work during installation. – Gui

for me, it happend when I installed heroku-git – Lubberly

If you're working with vs-code, do not forget to close every instance after having changed the path ;) – Bede

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 – Colporteur

Answer 2

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.

Lick

This worked for me, but it's called "apps and features" on windows 10. – Kaolack

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. – Sse

Thank you for this! my issue was resolved after repairing Nodejs under 'apps and features' on my windows pc! – Intravenous

This answer should be higher up the list. Thank you! – Phytohormone

Agreed. Also nice to know that feature exists in Windows 10 - so thanks to PeonProgrammer for that... – Facture

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 – Semiweekly

+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. – Cannon

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 :) – Olnton

This definitely worked for two colleagues having the same issue – Felecia

Answer 3

You need to run this in the command line.

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

Fossick

bash shell in windows – Fossick

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 – Timaru

I had to move this path further up to give it higher precedence after attempting to update npm using npm (npm -i npm). – Logroll

Answer 4

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. . .

Warfourd

Thank you, this worked great after an upgrade messed up my NPM installation and repair and reinstall didn't fix it. – Monitorial

In which files we want to make this change.Please guide – Swanger

Had to do something similar. Copied the nodejs folder into `C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming` and renamed 'nodejs' to 'npm'. Then things started working. – Outpouring

Answer 5

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

Misteach

in the path where? – Telescope

Answer 6

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

Langmuir

If you need to set the WorkingDirectory to run the install command in a specific directory this does not solve the problem – Dymphia

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 – Dymphia

Answer 7

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

Zebadiah

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). – Comber

Answer 8

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.

Bowlder

My path looked OK; Uninstall/Reinstall resolved the issue for me. – Joselyn

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 – Skippie

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! – Lipkin

Answer 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

Nassi

Answer 10

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.

Belamy

Looks like this was fixed with newer versions of the frontend plugin: github.com/eirslett/frontend-maven-plugin/issues/147 – Disdainful

For me I just had to reinstall node. Thank you! – Holladay

Answer 11

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

Pons

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. – Classicism

Answer 12

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.

Tarnation

Answer 13

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.

Hatti

Answer 14

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

Pupil

Answer 15

On Windows 10:

1. Press windows key, type edit the system environment variables then enter.
2. Click environment variables...
3. 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.
4. Find the row with variable Path and click it.
5. Click edit which will open a window titled Edit evironment variable.
6. 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.

Theirs

Answer 16

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!

Purlieu

Worked for me as well! Error started probably after a Win10 update – Bugeye

Answer 17

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.

Anacreontic

Answer 18

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.

Novella

Answer 19

just run this command :

npm i npm@latest -g

Bensen

Welcome to Stack Overflow! Could you elaborate on what this does and how it answers the question? – Adduct

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. – Comber

Answer 20

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

Educable

Answer 21

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.

Landes

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. – Keynes

Answer 22

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

Putt

honestly this is such a good hack. I spent ages trying to fix what was wrong for this to work – Layer

My case was very similar, but I had to copy the npm folder (which had bin and several other things) to the top level of my C drive – Autorotation

Answer 23

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.

Hesychast

Answer 24

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

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

Spinner

Answer 25

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.

Curmudgeon

Answer 26

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

Hephaestus

Answer 27

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 :)

Hannus

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 :) – Superphysical

Answer 28

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

Kynewulf

Answer 29

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.

Deceive

Answer 30

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.

Stucco

Answer 31

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

Biradial

Answer 32

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.

Milinda

Answer 33

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.

Hadlee

Answer 34

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

Maxentia

Answer 35

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:

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

Evadne

Answer 36

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

Wagonlit

Answer 37

as other answer says: the path was changed somehow

situation

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

solution

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

Murderous

Answer 38

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 !

Bilek

Answer 39

To resolve on Windows

Removing the older version of NVM and installing the new version sorted the same issue on my system.

To acquire the most recent version of NVM, visit the following link: https://github.com/coreybutler/nvm-windows/releases. While writing this answer, the latest version is 1.1.12.

Once done, install the latest version of Node or whichever suits your requirement.

Tailback

Answer 40

For me I was trying to install Node v22.0.0 and kept getting this problems, none of the solutions above worked for me. Instead I installed a lower version v20.12.2 which is LTS and it worked fine

Jenniejennifer

Answer 41

Updating NPM to the latest version worked for me:

npm install npm@latest -g

Apologetics

Answer 42

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.

Swirl

The edit from @E_net4TheCurator was fine - we prefer not to add voting advice/commentary here. – Habile