Why is my 'npm start' script resulting in the error: '.' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.?

Question

Windows 10 Node v8.1

The project's package.json file consists of a "scripts" object which contains a "start" script that attempts to load nodemon.js from './node_modules/nodemon/bin/nodemon.js', but I keep getting this error that "." is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.

I believe it has something to do with my environment variables, but I'm still confused. Do I need to add a path to my project's node_modules directory in my PATH environment variable?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It's enough to use

"start": "nodemon"

When you run npm scripts it will automatically add the node_modules/.bin/ folder to the PATH. In that folder there is a script called nodemon.cmd that points to the proper nodemon folder and runs nodemon correctly.

The answer to the question in the title can be found here.