Documentation in Tutorial Part 0 - Using the Gatsby CLI missing key info

[resource11]

Summary

Hello Gatsby core team! I think users working through the Gatsby tutorials will benefit from guidance on choosing npm as their default package manager to select on first run of gatsby new when starting to learn Gatsby. In addition, pointing to the page on Gatsby CLI commands will be helpful. This missing piece of info should reduce issues that occur when a user works through Tutorial Part 3 and is required to install dependencies in a project for the first time.

I'm happy to make updates to the documentation if you wish.

Some recommended topics to cover:

• How to change your default package manager for your next project

---

Motivation

Users who are brand new to using npm and/or yarn will benefit greatly from this info, here's why:

While working through the Gatsby Tutorials, I ran into an issue in Tutorial Part 3 where running gatsby develop in the cli at step 4 of the Install and configure gatsby-plugin-typography step, and threw the following error:

Error: Cannot find module 'react'

After checking the package.json file dependencies I ran yarn in the cli, and then gatsby develop. The app loaded just fine after that.

I reviewed all the tutorial steps to determine what possibly may have caused the error, and I remembered one thing: when I generated a Gastby project for the first time, I selected yarn as my default package manager (in anticipation to working with theming and yarn workspaces later in the week).

As I was following the tutorial steps, I realized I was using npm rather than yarn to install the typography dependencies. I'm not fully familiar with the issues that could happen (if any) by using yarn as your default package manager, generating gatsby projects, and then using npm to install dependencies in the project.

However. Considering the tutorial steps are indicating we should be using npm to install dependencies, it seems it makes sense to guide brand new users to select npm as their default package manager during the first run of gatsby new, yes?

Steps to resolve this issue

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[sjames1958gm]

I ran into this same issue. Deleting the node_modules and running yarn resolved it.

[resource11]

Indeed that will resolve the issue! My concern here is the Gatsby users that are new to yarn and npm in general.

Improving the documentation will reduce the amount of times users may get tripped up by following the tutorial steps, should they choose to select yarn vs npm as their default package manger on first run.

[LekoArts]

The problem you're running into is not that you're mixing yarn and npm but that npm messed up the dependencies after the install of the typography plugin. If you rerun npm install instead of yarn it'll work, too.

People that don't know yarn won't have it installed and hence the CLI will pick npm as default manager.

So all in all I think there is no need to add this instruction as it's unfortunately a bug of npm.

[github-actions]

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 30 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here. You can also add the label "not stale" to keep this issue open!
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

[github-actions]

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 30 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here. You can also add the label "not stale" to keep this issue open!
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

[resource11]

Thanks for the feedback, @LekoArts! I suppose I should rephrase: I'm familiar with both yarn and npm and how using both at once can mess up dependencies and such, however! New users who are unfamiliar and who may read/follow instructions literally can get tripped up without the clarifying instructions. 😄

I'm glad to see this is on the Learning Roadmap, @marcysutton. Let me know if you'd like me to submit a PR here...

[laurieontech]

@resource11 We'd definitely be open to a PR that clarifies this! Part Zero is focused on new users, so want to make it as error proof as possible.

[resource11]

Excellent! I'll get started on writing something up for this. Thanks, @laurieontech!

[github-actions]

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 30 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here. You can also add the label "not stale" to keep this issue open!
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜