Cannot find module 'webpack' error

Cannot find module 'webpack' error #

To solve the "Cannot find module 'webpack'" error, make sure to install webpack globally by running the npm i -g webpack command and create a symbolic link from the globally-installed package to node_modules by running the npm link webpack command.

Open your terminal in your project's root directory (where your package.json file is located) and run the following commands:

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# ✅ Install Webpack globally
npm install -g webpack webpack-cli

# ✅ Create a symbolic link from the global package
# to node_modules/ of current folder
npm link webpack

Once you run the two commands, the error should be resolved.

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# 👇️ If you got permissions error, run with sudo
sudo npm install -g webpack webpack-cli

npm link webpack

The npm link command creates a symbolic link from the globally installed package to the node_modules/ directory of the current folder.

If the error is not resolved, try installing webpack and webpack-cli locally.

Open your terminal in your project's root directory (where your package.json file is located) and run the following commands:

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npm install --save-dev webpack webpack-cli

This will add webpack to the development dependencies of your project, so you don't have to run the link command.

If the error is not resolved, try to delete your node_modules and package-lock.json (not package.json) files, re-run npm install and restart your IDE.

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# 👇️ delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rm -rf node_modules
rm -f package-lock.json
# 👇️ delete dist or build (the directory where webpack outputs files)
rm -rf dist

# 👇️ clean npm cache
npm cache clean --force

npm install

Make sure to also delete your dist or build folder if you have one. This is where webpack outputs files.

If you're still getting the "Cannot find module 'webpack'" error, open your package.json file and make sure it contains the webpack package in the devDependencies object.

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{
  // ... rest
  "devDependencies": {
    "webpack": "^5.70.0",
    "webpack-cli": "^4.9.2"
    // ... rest
  }
}

You can try to manually add the line and re-run npm install.

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npm install

Or install the latest version of the packages:

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npm install --save-dev webpack@latest webpack-cli@latest

Conclusion #

To solve the "Cannot find module 'webpack'" error, make sure to install webpack globally by running the npm i -g webpack command and create a symbolic link from the globally-installed package to node_modules by running the npm link webpack command.