[npm] Babel command not found

I have installed the babel-cli tool as explained by the Babel 'getting started' page.

From a terminal inside my project folder:

npm install --save-dev babel-cli

After this, there is a node_modules directory with a babel-cli folder, but there is no package.json created. npm also shows the following error:

npm WARN enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/Users/MyName/Sites/Tutorials/Babel2/package.json

When trying to run babel, I get this:

babel src -d lib
-bash: babel: command not found

I have the latest version of nodejs/npm installed. I have run npm update -g, and I have edited my .bash_profile file to include:

export PATH=$PATH:/Users/MyName/npm/bin
export PATH=/usr/local/share/npm/bin:$PATH

I have not experienced this with other npm tools such as browserify. Why is babel not recognized?

I ran into the very same problem, tried out really everything that I could think of. Not being a fan of installing anything globally, but eventually had to run npm install -g babel-cli, which solved my problem. Maybe not the answer, but definitely a possible solution...

When I found this question, I was looking for

$ npm install -g babel-cli

Installing babel globally solves this issue:

npm install -g @babel/core @babel/cli

However, it is not encourage to install dependencies globally because they won't have their versions managed on a per-project basis.

You should install your dependencies locally, as suggested on babel's documentation:

npm install --save-dev @babel/core @babel/cli

The downside is that this gives you no fast/convenient way to invoke local binaries interactively (in this case babel). npx gives you a great solution:

npx babel --version

This will run your local installation of babel. Additionally, if you want to avoid typing npx, you can configure the shell auto fallback, and then just run:

babel --version

Note: it is important to create a file .babelrc, at your project's root, in which you specify your babel configuration. As a starting point you can use env-preset to transpile to ES2015+:

npm install @babel/preset-env --save-dev

In order to enable the preset you have to define it in your .babelrc file, like this:

{
  "presets": ["@babel/preset-env"]
}

One option is to install the cli globally.

Since Babel 7 was released the namespace has changed from babel-cli to @babel/cli, hence:

npm install --global @babel/cli

You'll likely still encounter errors for @babel/core so:

npm install --global @babel/core

You will need to add quotes around the path to your babel file as below

"./node_modules/.bin/babel" --help

For those using Yarn as their package manager instead of npm:

yarn global add babel-cli

This is what I've done to automatically add my local project node_modules/.bin path to PATH. In ~/.profile I added:

if [ -d "$PWD/node_modules/.bin" ]; then 
    PATH="$PWD/node_modules/.bin"
fi

Then reload your bash profile: source ~/.profile

Actually, if you want to use cmd commands,you have two ways. First, install it at gloabl environment. The other way is npm link. so, try the first way: npm install -g babel-cli.

This is common issue and its looking for .cmd file from your root directory where you installed babel-cli. Try the below command.

./node_modules/.bin/babel.cmd

Once you are able to see your source code in the command prompt. Your next step is to install one more npm module babel-preset-es2015.

Follow the below answer to install babel-preset-es2015 and see why babel need this.

babel-file-is-copied-without-being-transformed

I had the same issue. Deleted the nodemodules folder and opened command prompt as administrator and then ran npm install.

All packages installed fine.

To install version 7+ of Babel run:

npm install -g @babel/cli
npm install -g @babel/core

This worked for me inside package.json as an npm script but it does seem to take to long grabbing the packages even though I have them as dev dependancies. It also seems too long.

"babel": "npx -p @babel/cli -p @babel/core babel --version"

What end up solving it was much simpler but funny too

npm install

I thought I ran that already but I guess somethings needed to be rebuilt. Then just:

"babel": "babel --version"

Worked for me e.g.

./node_modules/.bin/babel --version
./node_modules/.bin/babel src/main.js