Graphify-Labs/graphify · error · RuntimeError

Claude Code CLI not found on $PATH

Error message

Claude Code CLI not found on $PATH

What it means

RuntimeError raised by the claude-cli backend when `shutil.which("claude")` finds no executable on PATH on a non-Windows system (or on Windows when neither claude.cmd nor claude resolves). graphify invokes the Claude Code CLI as a subprocess (`claude -p --output-format json`), so it hard-fails up front if the binary is missing rather than failing mid-pipeline.

Source

Thrown at graphify/llm.py:2618

            messages=[{"role": "user", "content": prompt}],
        )
        u = getattr(resp, "usage", None)
        if u is not None:
            _rec(getattr(u, "input_tokens", 0), getattr(u, "output_tokens", 0))
        return resp.content[0].text if resp.content else ""

    if backend == "claude-cli":
        import platform, shutil, subprocess
        # Mirror the extraction-path resolution: on Windows the npm shim is
        # claude.cmd, which CreateProcess can't resolve from a bare "claude"
        # (PATHEXT doesn't apply), so pass the resolved .cmd path explicitly.
        claude_cmd = "claude"
        if platform.system() == "Windows":
            cmd_path = shutil.which("claude.cmd")
            if cmd_path:
                claude_cmd = cmd_path
            elif shutil.which("claude") is None:
                raise RuntimeError("Claude Code CLI not found on $PATH")
        elif shutil.which("claude") is None:
            raise RuntimeError("Claude Code CLI not found on $PATH")
        cli_args = [claude_cmd, "-p", "--output-format", "json", "--no-session-persistence"]
        if model is not None:
            cli_args.extend(["--model", mdl])
        proc = subprocess.run(
            cli_args,
            input=prompt,
            capture_output=True,
            text=True,
            encoding="utf-8",  # Force UTF-8 — prevents UnicodeEncodeError on Windows cp1252
            errors="replace",  # Tolerate non-UTF-8 bytes (e.g. GBK/cp936 from claude.cmd on Chinese Windows)
            timeout=_resolve_api_timeout(),
            check=False,
            **_no_window_kwargs(),
        )
        cli_error = _claude_cli_error(proc.stdout)
        if proc.returncode != 0:

View on GitHub (pinned to 7fe58b0b0f)

Solutions

1. Verify the CLI exists: `which claude` - if empty, install with `npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code`.
2. If it is installed but not found, add its directory to PATH (e.g. `export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"` or the nvm bin dir) in the exact shell/service env that runs graphify.
3. If you cannot install the CLI, switch the backend to 'claude' (anthropic package) or another provider.

Example fix

# before: backend shells out to a missing binary
$ graphify update . --backend claude-cli
# RuntimeError: Claude Code CLI not found on $PATH

# after: install the CLI globally, then re-run
$ npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
$ which claude && graphify update . --backend claude-cli

import shutil, platform

def claude_cli_available() -> bool:
    if platform.system() == "Windows":
        return shutil.which("claude.cmd") is not None or shutil.which("claude") is not None
    return shutil.which("claude") is not None

if not claude_cli_available():
    raise SystemExit("Install Claude Code CLI: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code")

try:
    result = call_llm(prompt, backend="claude-cli")
except RuntimeError as exc:
    if "CLI not found" in str(exc):
        raise SystemExit("claude CLI missing from PATH - install or fix PATH") from exc
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Selecting backend 'claude-cli' on Linux/macOS while `claude` is not on $PATH: graphify/llm.py:2617-2620 runs shutil.which and raises when it returns None. Happens for any LLM call (labels, dedup, extraction) once that backend is chosen.

Common situations: Node/npm installed the CLI under a user npm prefix (e.g. ~/.npm-global/bin) that is not on PATH in cron, CI, or a service context; nvm-managed node where the shell that installed claude differs from the one running graphify; the user installed the desktop app but never `npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code`.

Related errors

• graph not found: {source_path}
• No git repository found at or above {path.resolve()}
• Claude Code CLI not found on $PATH. Install from https://cla
• Azure OpenAI backend requires AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT to be se
• gh CLI not found or not authenticated. Run: gh auth login

AI-assisted analysis of Graphify-Labs/graphify@7fe58b0b0f (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a61b1295fface3e9. Report an issue: GitHub.