'vite' is not recognized as an internal or external command

# 'vite' is not recognized as an internal or external command

The error "'vite' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file" occurs when we forget to install the dependencies in a vite project.

To solve the error, run npm install to install vite before running npm run dev.

vite is not recognized as internal or external command

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

cmd

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# 👇️ if you use npm
npm install
npm install vite

npm run dev

# 👇️ if you use yarn
yarn install
yarn add vite

yarn dev

Once you run npm install or yarn install and install the vite package, you will be able to issue the npm run dev command without getting any errors.

run npm install

You can also prefix any vite command with npx to resolve the error.

cmd

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npx vite --help

# Delete your node_modules and reinstall your dependencies

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.

cmd

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# 👇️  (Windows) delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rd /s /q "node_modules"
del package-lock.json

# 👇️  (macOS/Linux) delete node_modules and package-lock.json
rm -rf node_modules
rm -f package-lock.json

# 👇️ clean npm cache
npm cache clean --force

# 👇️ install packages
npm install

npm run dev

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

Alternatively, you can create a new Vite project with the following command.

cmd

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# 👇️ using NPM to create a new Vite project
npm create vite@latest

cd vite-project
npm install
npm run dev

# 👇️ using yarn to create a new Vite project
yarn create vite

cd vite-project
yarn install
yarn dev

If the error persists, add npm to your PATH environment variable manually.

# Add `npm` to your PATH environment variable

To add npm to your PATH environment variable:

Click on the Search bar and type "environment variables".
Click on "Edit the system environment variables".

edit system environment variables

Click on the "Environment Variables" button.

click environment variables

In the "System variables" section, select the "Path" variable and click "Edit".

select path and click edit

Click on "New" and then click "Browse".

click new browse

Your npm directory is most likely located under %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm or in other words, C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\npm.

location

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%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\npm

# 👇️ same as below (make sure to replace YOUR_USER)
C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Roaming\npm

If you can't find it, run the npm config get prefix command.

cmd

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npm config get prefix

npm config get prefix

Add the path to npm and click on "OK" twice to confirm.
Close your Command prompt application and then reopen it.

Note that you must restart your Command prompt shell for the changes to take effect.

Try to issue the npm run dev command after you've restarted your shell.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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'vite' is not recognized as an internal or external command