Setup completed successfully, but there does not seem to be

Error message

Setup completed successfully, but there does not seem to be a global install of the Angular CLI. For autocompletion to work, the CLI will need to be on your `$PATH`, which is typically done with the `-g` flag in `npm install -g @angular/cli`.

For more information, see https://angular.dev/cli/completion#global-install

What it means

After `ng completion` sets up autocompletion, the CLI checks whether the Angular CLI is installed globally. If not, it warns that the `ng` binary likely isn't on `$PATH` globally, so shell autocompletion cannot work reliably, and points to the completion docs.

Source

Thrown at packages/angular/cli/src/utilities/completion.ts:86

  } catch (err) {
    assertIsError(err);
    // Failed to set up autocompeletion, log the error and abort.
    logger.error(err.message);

    return 1;
  }

  // Notify the user autocompletion was set up successfully.
  logger.info(
    `
Appended \`source <(ng completion script)\` to \`${rcFile}\`. Restart your terminal or run the following to autocomplete \`ng\` commands:

    ${colors.yellow(`source <(ng completion script)`)}
    `.trim(),
  );

  if (!(await hasGlobalCliInstall())) {
    logger.warn(
      'Setup completed successfully, but there does not seem to be a global install of the' +
        ' Angular CLI. For autocompletion to work, the CLI will need to be on your `$PATH`, which' +
        ' is typically done with the `-g` flag in `npm install -g @angular/cli`.' +
        '\n\n' +
        'For more information, see https://angular.dev/cli/completion#global-install',
    );
  }

  // Save configuration to remember that the user was prompted.
  await setCompletionConfig({ ...completionConfig, prompted: true });

  return undefined;
}

async function getCompletionConfig(): Promise<CompletionConfig | undefined> {
  const wksp = await getWorkspace('global');

  return wksp?.getCli()?.['completion'];

View on GitHub (pinned to bb72145f9a)

Solutions

Install the CLI globally: `npm install -g @angular/cli`, then re-run `ng completion`.
Ensure the global npm bin directory is on your `$PATH` (`npm config get prefix` / `npm bin -g`).
Source the completion script in your shell profile if a global install exists but isn't detected: `source <(ng completion script)`.

Example fix

// before
npm install @angular/cli
ng completion
// after
npm install -g @angular/cli
ng completion

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// verify global CLI before setting up completion
const globalCli = require('child_process').execSync('npm ls -g @angular/cli --depth=0').toString();
if (!globalCli.includes('@angular/cli')) console.warn('Install globally: npm i -g @angular/cli');

Prevention

Install the CLI globally (`npm i -g @angular/cli`) on dev machines.
Ensure npm's global bin dir is on `$PATH`.
Avoid relying on `npx` runs for autocompletion setup.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `ng completion` (or commands that trigger `considerSettingUpAutocompletion`) when `hasGlobalCliInstall()` returns false — i.e. `@angular/cli` was installed locally via `npm install @angular/cli` (no `-g`) or run via `npx`.

Common situations: Project-local CLI installs, using `npx @angular/cli`, monorepo setups where the CLI is a devDependency, or global installs under a Node version manager whose binary isn't on the login shell's PATH.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of angular/angular-cli@bb72145f9a (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/315e855173416ddb. Report an issue: GitHub.