ERR_PNPM_NO_PKG_MANIFEST No package.json found in ...

ERR_PNPM_NO_PKG_MANIFEST No package.json found in /path means pnpm looked for a project manifest (package.json, package.yaml or package.json5) in the current directory and found none. Change into the project folder that contains package.json and run the command again, or create a manifest with pnpm init if this is a new project.

Reproduce it

mkdir empty && cd empty
npx --yes pnpm@9 install

 ERR_PNPM_NO_PKG_MANIFEST  No package.json found in /tmp/work/empty

Fix

mkdir -p app && cd app
npx --yes pnpm@9 init > /dev/null
ls
cd ..
npx --yes pnpm@9 --dir app install > /dev/null 2>&1
echo "install exit=$?"

package.json
install exit=0

pnpm --dir PATH (short -C PATH) runs pnpm as if it had been started in PATH, which is handy in CI scripts.

In CI and Docker

npm prints the same situation as ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '.../package.json'.