strapi-5@0.1.0 error: Cannot find module '@strapi/email/package.json' on first start

[rbjs]

Bug report

Required System information

• Node.js version: v20.12.2
• NPM version: 10.5.2
• Strapi version: 5.0.0-beta.7
• Database: n/a
• Operating system: macOS 13.6.4
• Is your project Javascript or Typescript: n/a

Describe the bug

'npm run develop' returns fatal error on first run after fresh installation.

strapi-5@0.1.0 develop
strapi develop

⠋ Loading Strapi⠋ Building build context
[INFO] Including the following ENV variables as part of the JS bundle:
- ADMIN_PATH
- STRAPI_ADMIN_BACKEND_URL
- STRAPI_TELEMETRY_DISABLED
✔ Building build context (47ms)
✔ Creating admin (378ms)
[ERROR] There seems to be an unexpected error, try again with --debug for more information
`
│ Error: Cannot find module '@strapi/email/package.json'
│ Require stack:
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/loaders/plugins/get-enabled-plugins.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/loaders/plugins/index.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/loaders/index.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/providers/registries.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/providers/index.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/Strapi.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/index.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/strapi/dist/cli/commands/admin/create-user.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/strapi/dist/cli/commands/index.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/strapi/dist/cli/index.js
│ - /Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/strapi/bin/strapi.js
│ at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1143:15)
│ at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:984:27)
│ at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1231:19)
│ at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:179:18)
│ at Module.getEnabledPlugins (/Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/loaders/plugins/get-enabled-plugins.js:55:25)
│ at loadPlugins (/Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/loaders/plugins/index.js:76:50)
│ at Module.loadApplicationContext (/Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/loaders/index.js:16:5)
│ at Object.register (/Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/providers/registries.js:26:17)
│ at Strapi.register (/Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/Strapi.js:301:32)
│ at Strapi.load (/Users/dev/strapi5/node_modules/@strapi/core/dist/Strapi.js:293:16)

`

Steps to reproduce the behavior

npx create-strapi-app@beta my-project --quickstart
cd my-project
npm run develop

[joshuaellis]

@rbjs can you run npm ls @strapi/email and share the output please?

[github-actions]

This is a templated message

Hello @rbjs,

Thank you for reporting this bug, however we are unable to reproduce the issue you described given the information we have on hand. Can you please create a fresh project that you are able to reproduce the issue in, provide clear steps to reproduce this issue, and either upload this fresh project to a new GitHub repo or compress it into a .zip and upload it on this issue?

We would greatly appreciate your assistance with this, by working in a fresh project it will cut out any possible variables that might be unrelated.
Please note that issues labeled with status: can not reproduce will be closed in 14 days if there is no activity.

Thank you!

[LuisRodriguezLD]

Usually I don't write comments like 'same here' but I'm also seeing this and I can provide more input.

Same env as OP but:

• Using TS
• Using SQLite

Running npm ls @strapi/email yields

project@0.1.0 /Users/user/dev/project
└─┬ @strapi/strapi@5.0.0-beta.7
  └── @strapi/email@5.0.0-beta.7

The file requiring this package is here -> https://github.com/strapi/strapi/blob/v5.0.0-beta.7/packages/core/core/src/loaders/plugins/get-enabled-plugins.ts

Let me know if you have additional questions

[joshuaellis]

Thanks @LuisRodriguezLD, what package manager are you using? 😊

EDIT: and node version?

[LuisRodriguezLD]

NPM 10.5.0
NODE 20.12.1

[joshuaellis]

The issue comes from the fact that only @strapi/strapi has @strapi/email listed as a dependency, but @strapi/core tries to load it dynamically without having it listed as a dependency, this will most likely break pnpm anyway.

@alexandrebodin || @innerdvations I think it's worth reviewing how plugins are loaded by strapi/core because whilst the immediate fix would be to add @strapi/email to the list of deps in @strapi/core I think it's a brittle solution considering that the package wants to load deps it doesn't know about and thus relies on package manager implementation which as we can see is subject to break. Made a loom to demonstrate the issue https://www.loom.com/share/a75b25cbed004b829d3df761bcef7a1e?sid=219dcfa1-79ec-4a2b-aa9f-5807c4fe4871

[Convly]

I managed to reproduce it locally.

From what I've found, it comes down to hoisting settings:

• if hoisting is enabled, no issue arise
• if you add hoist=false to your project .npmrc (or disable hoisting globally), then dependency errors arise.

Note: This is something that also happen on v4 since its launch.

This is still a valid issue as package managers are slowly going toward "no hoisting by default" and we're definitely going to work on it, but we've decided to lower the priority as it's not a regression and has a straightforward workaround.

[LuisRodriguezLD]

Thanks for looking into this @Convly
However, wouldn't it make sense to add this .npmrc file as part of the initial template?
I feel this could make life easier for devs who just want to try Strapi without needing to dig into why it's randomly failing

I'm happy to work on this if you think is a good idea.