Troubleshooting
no package.json, deno.json or deno.jsonc found
Section titled “no package.json, deno.json or deno.jsonc found”pkgr looks only in the directory you give it (or the current one). It never searches parent directories. Change into the project, or pass the path: pkgr ./path/to/project.
pkgr needs an interactive terminal to choose a task
Section titled “pkgr needs an interactive terminal to choose a task”stdin or stdout is redirected. Run pkgr directly in a terminal, not through a pipe or a tool that captures output. The tasks are still printed so you can see what is available.
It picked the wrong package manager
Section titled “It picked the wrong package manager”pkgr trusts, in order: the packageManager field, the lockfile beside the manifest, then falls back to npm. Set packageManager in package.json (for example "pnpm@9.1.0"). See Package managers.
If two lockfiles exist, the first in this order wins: pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, bun.lock, bun.lockb, package-lock.json.
no scripts or tasks declared
Section titled “no scripts or tasks declared”The file parsed, but there is no scripts object (package.json) or tasks object (deno.json), or it is empty.
A syntax error with a byte offset
Section titled “A syntax error with a byte offset”Open the manifest and go to that byte position. Comments and trailing commas are fine, so look for a missing quote, colon or brace.
The Linux binary crashed with no message
Section titled “The Linux binary crashed with no message”The published Linux binary is built with panic = immediate-abort to keep it at about 117 KB, so a crash is a bare SIGABRT with no message. Build from source with ./build.sh to get a binary that reports panics, and please open an issue with what you ran.
On Linux the file will not run
Section titled “On Linux the file will not run”Release downloads have no execute permission:
chmod +x pkgr-linux-x86_64On Windows, npm fails with “%1 is not a valid Win32 application”
Section titled “On Windows, npm fails with “%1 is not a valid Win32 application””pkgr is built to avoid this: it resolves npm.cmd rather than the extensionless shell script that npm ships beside it. If you see it, your PATH probably has an unusual layout. Please open an issue.
The terminal looks sheared or scrollback is eaten
Section titled “The terminal looks sheared or scrollback is eaten”This should not happen: every redraw rewinds exactly the number of lines it painted. If it does, report your terminal and OS.
The macOS binaries are not signed or notarised. If you see “cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified”, clear the quarantine flag with xattr -d com.apple.quarantine pkgr-macos-arm64 (or allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security). CI builds and tests the unix terminal code on macOS, but the picker has not yet been verified by hand in Terminal.app or iTerm: if something looks wrong, please open an issue with your terminal and macOS version.
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