nodejs/node · error · Error

No dependencies found matching ${args.join(', ')}

Error message

No dependencies found matching ${args.join(', ')}

What it means

`npm explain <spec>...` collects tree nodes matching each argument, applying any --workspace filter. If the resulting node set is empty (no arg matched anything, or all matches were filtered out) it throws naming the requested args.

Source

Thrown at deps/npm/lib/commands/explain.js:56

      this.filterSet = arb.workspaceDependencySet(tree, this.workspaceNames)
    } else if (!this.npm.flatOptions.workspacesEnabled) {
      this.filterSet =
        arb.excludeWorkspacesDependencySet(tree)
    }

    const nodes = new Set()
    for (const arg of args) {
      for (const node of this.getNodes(tree, arg)) {
        const filteredOut = this.filterSet
          && this.filterSet.size > 0
          && !this.filterSet.has(node)
        if (!filteredOut) {
          nodes.add(node)
        }
      }
    }
    if (nodes.size === 0) {
      throw new Error(`No dependencies found matching ${args.join(', ')}`)
    }

    const expls = []
    for (const node of nodes) {
      const { extraneous, dev, optional, devOptional, peer, inBundle, overridden } = node
      const expl = node.explain()
      if (extraneous) {
        expl.extraneous = true
      } else {
        expl.dev = dev
        expl.optional = optional
        expl.devOptional = devOptional
        expl.peer = peer
        expl.bundled = inBundle
        expl.overridden = overridden
      }
      expls.push(expl)
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 1b2de5e052)

Solutions

1. Confirm the dependency is installed: `npm ls <pkg>`
2. Correct the spec or package name spelling
3. Drop or widen the --workspace filter if it is excluding the matching node
4. Run `npm install` first if the tree is incomplete

async function depExplainable(arborist, args, filterSet) {
  const tree = await arborist.loadActual()
  let matched = 0
  for (const arg of args) for (const node of getNodes(tree, arg)) {
    if (!filterSet || filterSet.size === 0 || filterSet.has(node)) matched++
  }
  return matched > 0
}

function anyNodeMatches(nodes) { return nodes.size > 0 }

try {
  await runNpm('explain', args)
} catch (e) {
  if (/No dependencies found/.test(e.message)) { await runNpm('ls') /* inspect tree */ }
  else throw e
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `npm explain <pkg>` where <pkg> is not installed in the current tree; a typo; a dep present only under a workspace excluded by your --workspace filter.

Common situations: Querying a transitive dep that was deduped/removed; wrong package name; running explain from the wrong directory (no node_modules).

Related errors

• Cannot use --no-workspaces and --workspace at the same time
• Please provide only one of ${flagList}
• Unknown positional argument: ${extra}
• ${argv[2]} not recognized
• As of npm@5, the npm cache self-heals from corruption issues

AI-assisted analysis of nodejs/node@1b2de5e052 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8eef14d9a60dd290. Report an issue: GitHub.