Cordova - Current working directory is not a Cordova-based project

Question

I'm using phonegap for my mobile project. My question is why I got this error when I try to search phonegap plugin using cordova CLI? I run this command in terminal to search phonegap plugin

cordova plugin search bar code

Full error message

Last login: Wed Jan 22 15:04:09 on ttys000
Mohammads-MacBook-Pro:~ mohammadnurdin$ cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/rmbp/apps/rmbp/iphone/native
Mohammads-MacBook-Pro:native mohammadnurdin$ cordova plugin search bar code

/usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/src/util.js:57
            throw new Error('Current working directory is not a Cordova-based 
                  ^
Error: Current working directory is not a Cordova-based project.
    at Object.module.exports.cdProjectRoot (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/src/util.js:57:19)
    at CLI.plugin (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/src/plugin.js:28:36)
    at new CLI (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/src/cli.js:109:30)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/cordova/bin/cordova:41:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
    at startup (node.js:119:16)
Mohammads-MacBook-Pro:native mohammadnurdin$ 

Answer 1

If you are getting this error on Ionic2
This issue generally occur when we just clone / download app and try to add platform to it.

its very easy to resolve, then here are the steps-

just create a "www" directory in application root.

"./www"

can also do by this command-

mkdir www

now we can easily run following command -

ionic platform add android
or
ionic platform add ios

Hope it will help!!!

Answer 2

Solution is to make sure there's a www/ directory inside the root directory.

mkdir www

make sure your .gitignore file doesn't include www/ directory on it.

Answer 3

Yes, as QuickFix said, you need to be in a Cordova project before being able to use most of cordova Commands. If you are curious about what defines a Cordova project, this is what I found:

• Has a .cordova directory, with a config.json inside.
• Has a www directory, with a config.xml inside.
• Has a platforms directory.

With that in place you can use Cordoba commands without problem. If you need examples of those config files just run cordova create myapp.

Answer 4

Happened to me also, probably from npm/node updates.

Worked for me the following:

npm install -g cordova

ionic cordova platform list