[node.js] "Fatal error: Unable to find local grunt." when running "grunt" command

I uninstalled grunt with following command.

npm uninstall -g grunt

Then I again installed grunt with following command.

npm install -g grunt-cli

Visit following link: https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-html

I want to use the above grunt plugin

But when I run the grunt command it gives me following error:

D:\nodeJS\node_modules\grunt-html>grunt
grunt-cli: The grunt command line interface. (v0.1.6)

Fatal error: Unable to find local grunt.

If you're seeing this message, either a Gruntfile wasn't found or grunt
hasn't been installed locally to your project. For more information about
installing and configuring grunt, please see the Getting Started guide:
http://gruntjs.com/getting-started

You have to install grunt in your project folder

1. create your package.json

   $ npm init
   

2. install grunt for this project, this will be installed under node_modules/. --save-dev will add this module to devDependency in your package.json

   $ npm install grunt --save-dev
   

3. then create gruntfile.js and run

   $ grunt 
   

if you are a exists project, maybe should execute npm install.

guntjs getting started step 2.

I think you have to add grunt to your package.json file. See this link.

I had the same issue today on windows 32 bit,with node 0.10.25, and grunt 0.4.5.

I followed dongho's answer, with just few extra steps. here are the steps I used to solve the error:

1) create your package.json

$ npm init

2) install grunt for this project, this will be installed under node_modules/. --save-dev will add this module to devDependency in your package.json

$ npm install grunt --save-dev

3) then create gruntfile.js , with a sample code like this:

module.exports = function(grunt) {

  grunt.initConfig({
    jshint: {
      files: ['Gruntfile.js', 'src/**/*.js', 'test/**/*.js'],
      options: {
        globals: {
          jQuery: true
        }
      }
    },
    watch: {
      files: ['<%= jshint.files %>'],
      tasks: ['jshint']
    }
  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-jshint');
  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-watch');

  grunt.registerTask('default', ['jshint']);

};

here, src/**/*.js and test/**/*.js should be the paths to actual JS files you are using in your project

4) run npm install grunt-contrib-jshint --save-dev

5) run npm install grunt-contrib-watch --save-dev

6) run $ grunt

Note: when you require common package like concat, uglify etc, you need to add those modules via npm install, just the way we installed jshint and watch in step 4 & 5

I had this issue on my Windows grunt because I installed the 32 bit version of Node on a 64 bit Windows OS. When I installed the 64bit version specifically, it started working.

This solved the issue for me. I mistakenly installed grunt using:

sudo npm install -g grunt --save-dev

and then ran the following command in the project folder:

npm install

This resulted in the error seen by the author of the question. I then uninstalled grunt using:

sudo npm uninstall -g grunt

Deleted the node_modules folder. And reinstalled grunt using:

npm install grunt --save-dev

and running the following in the project folder:

npm install

For some odd reason when you global install grunt using -g and then uninstall it, the node_modules folder holds on to something that prevents grunt from being installed locally to the project folder.