abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus · error · Error

Claude CLI not found. Install Claude Code and ensure `claude

Error message

Claude CLI not found. Install Claude Code and ensure `claude` is on PATH.

What it means

The wiki `--provider claude` path shells out to the user's local Claude Code CLI. Before running, detectLocalCLI executes `claude --version`; if that fails (binary not on PATH → ENOENT, or non-zero exit), the provider is cached as unavailable and callClaudeLLM throws this immediately. Note it can also fire when the binary exists but --version exits non-zero (e.g. broken install), with a warning logged.

Source

Thrown at gitnexus/src/core/wiki/local-cli-client.ts:103

}

export function resolveLocalCLIConfig(overrides?: Partial<LocalCLIConfig>): LocalCLIConfig {
  return {
    model: overrides?.model,
    workingDirectory: overrides?.workingDirectory,
    requestTimeoutMs: overrides?.requestTimeoutMs,
  };
}

export async function callClaudeLLM(
  prompt: string,
  config: LocalCLIConfig,
  systemPrompt?: string,
  options?: CallLLMOptions,
): Promise<LLMResponse> {
  const commandInfo = getDetectedCommand('claude');
  if (!commandInfo) {
    throw new Error('Claude CLI not found. Install Claude Code and ensure `claude` is on PATH.');
  }

  const args = ['-p', '--output-format', 'text', '--no-session-persistence'];
  if (config.model) {
    args.push('--model', config.model);
  }
  const fullPrompt = systemPrompt ? `${systemPrompt}\n\n---\n\n${prompt}` : prompt;

  const response = await runLocalCLI('claude', commandInfo, args, config, fullPrompt, options);
  if (!response.content) {
    throw new Error('claude CLI returned empty output');
  }
  return response;
}

export async function callCodexLLM(
  prompt: string,
  config: LocalCLIConfig,

View on GitHub (pinned to aac7515d2a)

Solutions

1. Install Claude Code and verify `claude --version` works in the same shell/environment you run gitnexus from
2. Fix PATH: ensure the claude binary directory (e.g. ~/.local/bin or npm global bin) is exported in the environment
3. Once installed, authenticate (`claude` login) so the CLI can answer prompts
4. If you don't want the local CLI, switch to an HTTP provider: `--provider openai|azure|minimax --api-key ...`

Example fix

# before
gitnexus wiki --provider claude   # claude: not found

# after
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
claude --version
gitnexus wiki --provider claude

import { execFileSync } from 'child_process';
function claudeCliAvailable(): boolean {
  try { execFileSync('claude', ['--version'], { stdio: 'ignore' }); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}
if (!claudeCliAvailable()) throw new Error('Install Claude Code first');

function claudeCliAvailable(): boolean {
  try { execFileSync('claude', ['--version'], { stdio: 'ignore' }); return true; }
  catch { return false; }
}

try {
  await callClaudeLLM(prompt, config);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes('Claude CLI not found')) {
    // fall back to an HTTP provider instead of the local CLI
    return callLLM(prompt, httpConfig);
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `gitnexus wiki --provider claude` without Claude Code installed; `claude` not on PATH in the current shell/CI container; claude installed via a version manager whose shims aren't in PATH for this process; broken install where `claude --version` errors.

Common situations: CI runners assuming the CLI is preinstalled; nvm/asdf PATH not loaded in non-interactive shells; Windows installs without PATH entry; running in a container where only the Node API key flow was set up.

Related errors

• Codex CLI not found. Install Codex CLI and ensure `codex` is
• claude CLI returned empty output
• --allow-insecure-connection / GITNEXUS_ALLOW_INSECURE_CONNEC
• Invalid LLM base URL: must be a well-formed http:// or https
• LLM base URL must use http:// or https:// (got ${parsed.prot

AI-assisted analysis of abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus@aac7515d2a (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9bdc0f8546bfc83a. Report an issue: GitHub.