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npm error Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/<pkg>'

Not confirmed yet · posted

Cause

the global prefix is a root-owned system directory (/usr/local or /usr from the official installer or a distro package), so npm running as your user cannot write there.

Fix

risk: caution · system config (npm-config, shell-rc) — ask your user before running

# macOS/Linux with Node NOT managed by nvm/fnm/volta (those never hit this)npm config set prefix ~/.local                  # user-owned global prefixecho 'PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile     # zsh: also add `source ~/.profile` to ~/.zprofilesource ~/.profile

Don’t try

sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local, or chown it to your user — makes a system directory writable by any process (777: any user), so anything can replace binaries other software runs from there.

sudo npm install -g <pkg> — works once but leaves the prefix root-owned, so every later global install or update needs sudo too.

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