Error with npm on ubuntu: executable file not found in $PATH

[adamtrip]

Hi! Having this issue on aspire with npm app.

fail: Aspire.Hosting.Dcp.dcpctrl.ExecutableReconciler[0]
      failed to start a process {"Executable": {"name":"frontend-mrxuuacr"}, "Reconciliation": 8, "error": "exec: \"npm\": executable file not found in $PATH"}
fail: Aspire.Hosting.Dcp.dcpctrl.ExecutableReconciler[0]
      failed to start Executable        {"Executable": {"name":"frontend-mrxuuacr"}, "Reconciliation": 8, "error": "exec: \"npm\": executable file not found in $PATH"}

this is my config:

builder.AddNpmApp("frontend", "./../../dm-studio-frontend", "dev")
    .WithHttpEndpoint(port: 3000, env: "PORT")
    .WithReference(backend)
    .PublishAsDockerFile();

I also tried to create a starter app, creating a new react app and adding a similar config as above:

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var apiService = builder.AddProject<Projects.testing_ApiService>("apiservice");

builder.AddProject<Projects.testing_Web>("webfrontend")
    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints()
    .WithReference(apiService);

builder.AddNpmApp("fr", "../my-app", "dev");

builder.Build().Run();

Screenshot of the dashboard:

I also tried to configure the app via executable and got the same error:

builder.AddExecutable("frontend", "npm run dev", "../../dm-studio-frontend")
    .WithHttpEndpoint(port: 30010, env: "PORT")
    .WithReference(backend)
    .PublishAsDockerFile();

I am not sure if this is a runtime/aspire issue but if I just run the app from the terminal, it works. It only gives this error while running via aspire.

Some extra info:
IDE: Rider

dotnet version:
8.0.401

aspire workload version:
aspire 8.2.0/8.0.100 SDK 8.0.400

ubuntu:
24.04.1 LTS (Noble Numbat)

Thanks in advance!

[davidfowl]

Did you install nodejs?

[adamtrip]

yes, the react app, in standalone, works just fine

[jack775544]

Did you install nodejs/npm via nvm? If you did then nvm does not add node/npm to the path but instead works by using a script in the bashrc to add the installation to the path on starting your terminal.

If this is what is happening to you, you would need to add the binaries to your system path (I believe in ~/.profile) then it should work. Other option would be to start Rider from a terminal terminal and then it will inherit the PATH from that terminal.

[adamtrip]

@jack775544 as a matter of fact, I actually used fnm (alternative to nvm). is this a situation exclusive to linux? I usually use nvm on windows and never had this particular issue

[jack775544]

I've never used fnm before but a quick skim of the readme makes me feel like it would have the same issue.

NVM for Windows actually works a bit different to the Macos/Linux version. It creates a symlink in a folder (normally C:\Program Files\nodejs) and adds that folder to the system PATH. When you change versions of node, it will adjust the location that the symlink points to. This means that it doesn't rely on any shell script magic to add node to the path and causes everything to work normally.

If you want to test if this hypothesis is correct though, try and start the app host project with dotnet run from the terminal. If it can find npm, then you know it is a PATH related issue.

[dbreshears]

Appears this is a machine configuration issue, converting to discussion