Do not Install Karma Globally

| programming | ci | javascript |

Wow, I spent so long trying to figure out why the hell karma was not working for me, it turns out its because it was installed globally. For instance. In my projects package.json I had:

"scripts": { "test": "karma start karma.conf.js" } ...
When I ran npm test - it told me sh 1: karma not found Every other possible combination also did the same thing. i.e.
node_modules/karma/bin/karma

./node_modules/karma/bin/karma

node ./node_modules/karma/bin/karma

I could totally execute this myself from the shell, so I had no idea what was wrong. Then I finally stumbled upon this GitHub Issue. After uninstalling karma globally, npm uninstall -g karma I was able to run npm test without any issues. I still have no idea why this works or didn't work. But at this point I just want to go back to writing tests.

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

Fujifilm X100 vs Leica Q vs Ricoh GR

Notes on three fixed-lens camera lines

via The Map is Mostly Water July 18, 2026

Make It Work vs. Make It Good

There are two wolves inside of me, lol. Some days I want to be a “designer”. Other days I want to be a “developer”. On the days I find myself wanting to feed the developer, it’s often because making something “work” seems easier (and more impressive) than...

via Jim Nielsen’s Blog July 18, 2026

Robert Jon & the Wreck at The Tin Pan

Robert Jon & the Wreck at The Tin Pan I have lived in RVA, and before that Fredericksburg, for over 20 years. I have looked at shows at The Tin Pan on multiple occasions. Every time I passed, because the idea of seeing a loud rock and roll show in a dinner...

via O'DonnellWeb July 18, 2026

Generated by openring