Vue Cli: Cannot find module '../package.json' error after npm install

Question

I am not an expert in Vuejs or Vuecli, but I do manage to get stuff working. I had a project i worked on before using Vuecli3 and webpack and now when I opened it after few weeks to make changes, i get the below error in dev mode

$ vue-cli-service serve --open --mode development --dashboard
internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:582
    throw err;
    ^

Error: Cannot find module '../package.json'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:580:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:506:25)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:636:17)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:20:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/Volumes/Drobo/Dropbox/NASDAQ Dubai/Marketdata-6-Indices/node_modules/.bin/vue-cli-service:5:25)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:688:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:699:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:598:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:537:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:529:3)

Total task duration: 0.15s

The package.json file is right there in the root director and also the .lock file. Dont know what is the reason for this error in compiling.

Any help hightly appreciated

Elisabetta

I experienced the same problem after moving the folder to a new location. Running 'yarn' or 'npm install' again makes the problem go away in my case. – Semi

@Semi +1 please post as an answer – Harrie

Super obscure/stupid, but might help someone: I ran into this when I accidentally ran vue cli in a network mounted path. Which is essentially similar to "moving the folder", I guess. – Kerbing

Answer 1

As @vesperknight mentioned in the comment, this issue tends to happen when you move the project's folder to another location.

To solve this (on Linux), from the root directory of your project:

1. Delete existing node modules. rm -r node_modules

2. Reinstall all dependencies: npm install

The first step seems to be important.

Immunogenetics

How about build offline in another server with different path? – Fablan

Please note that npm i does not do a full install. The above answer is the recommended way of solving this issue. – Jolson

Thank you, I experienced the same problem after duplication the project folder – Tajo

npm rebuild works too without requiring a whole fresh install – Scottie

Answer 2

I encountered the exact same issue when I was attempting to zip my Vue application using the command:

zip -r myzip.zip node_modules/ dist/ etc...

After moving the zip to a different location, extracting it, and then trying to run the app, it didn't work as expected.

The root cause of the problem turned out to be related to the node_modules/.bin directory. This directory contained bunch of symlinks which were not added to the zip file, including a symlink for the vue-cli-service:

vue-cli-service -> ../@vue/cli-service/bin/vue-cli-service.js

That file imported the package.json file located in the node_modules/@vue/cli-service/ directory. The improper handling of this symlink during the zipping process resulted in the app not being able to run after extraction (due to the lack of package.json in the aforementioned directory).

To resolve this issue I had to to use -y flag for zip command, so it handles symlinks properly. I guess this can be related to your issue. Make sure you're copying symlinks properly when moving Vue project.

Dissoluble

Answer 3

Check Node and npm versions. If not, you can try to delete node_modules due corrupted dependencies. Also you can try other terminals to test if the issue persists.

Britishism