Start script missing error when running npm start

Question

I'm receiving this error when trying to debug my node application using the npm start command.

Error:

npm ERR! Windows_NT 6.3.9600 npm ERR! argv "C:\Program Files\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js" "start" npm ERR! node v0.12.7 npm ERR! npm v2.11.3

npm ERR! missing script: start npm ERR! npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at: npm ERR! https://github.com/npm/npm/issuesnpm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request: npm ERR! C:\Users\andrmoll.NORTHAMERICA\Documents\GitHub\SVIChallenge\npm-debug.log

From the debug file:

verbose stack Error: missing script: start

4 verbose stack at run (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\lib\run-script.js:142:19)

4 verbose stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\lib\run-script.js:58:5

4 verbose stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:345:5

4 verbose stack at checkBinReferences_ (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:309:45)

4 verbose stack at final (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:343:3)

4 verbose stack at then (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:113:5)

4 verbose stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:300:12

4 verbose stack at evalmachine.:334:14

4 verbose stack at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\graceful-fs\graceful-fs.js:102:5

4 verbose stack at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (evalmachine.:95:15)

Answer 1

It looks like you might not have defined a start script in your package.json file or your project does not contain a server.js file.

If there is a server.js file in the root of your package, then npm will default the start command to node server.js.

https://docs.npmjs.com/misc/scripts#default-values

You could either change the name of your application script to server.js or add the following to your package.json

"scripts": {
    "start": "node your-script.js"
}

Or ... you could just run node your-script.js directly