Cannot find module 'dotenv' error in Node.js

Cannot find module 'dotenv' error in Node.js #

To solve the error "Cannot find module 'dotenv'", make sure to install the dotenv package by opening your terminal in your project's root directory and running the following command: npm install dotenv and restart your IDE and development server.

cannot find module dotenv

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

index.js

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// ⛔️ Error: Cannot find module 'dotenv'
// Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find package 'dotenv'
// imported from bobbyhadz-js/index.js
require('dotenv').config();

// 👇️ if you use ES6 you only need this line to import
// import 'dotenv/config'

console.log(process.env.DB_USER);
console.log(process.env.ENV);
console.log(process.env.DB_PORT);

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

shell

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npm install dotenv

This will add the dotenv package to the dependencies of your project.

If the error is not resolved, try restarting your IDE and your development server.

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

shell

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# 👇️ delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rm -rf node_modules
rm -f package-lock.json

# 👇️ clean npm cache
npm cache clean --force

npm install

npm install dotenv@latest

Make sure to restart your IDE and dev server if the error persists. VSCode often glitches and a reboot solves things sometimes.

Now create a .env file in the root directory of your project.

.env

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DB_PORT=1234
DB_USER=james_doe
ENV=dev

Make sure to add the .env file to your .gitignore, especially if you work on a public repository.

In your index.js file, before importing anything else, import and initialize the dotenv package.

index.js

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require('dotenv').config();

// 👇️ if you use ES6 you only need this line to import
// import 'dotenv/config'

console.log(process.env.DB_USER); // 👉️ "james_doe"
console.log(process.env.ENV); // 👉️ "dev"
console.log(process.env.DB_PORT); // 👉️ "1234"

It's very important that you load and initialize the dotenv package as the first thing in your index.js file, especially if you have other files that need to access the environment variables.

If you import another file before initializing dotenv, you end up running the files before the properties are set on the process.env object.

Now restart your development server and you should see the properties on the process.env object print out the specified values.

Note that the DB_PORT property has a value of type string, even though we set it as a number in the .env file.

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Cannot find module 'dotenv' error in Node.js

Cannot find module 'dotenv' error in Node.js #

Conclusion #

Borislav Hadzhiev