How to fix npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE npm ERR! errno 128 npm ERR! Exit status 128 in npm | DevErrors

How to fix "npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE npm ERR! errno 128 npm ERR! Exit status 128"

1Start SSH agent and add key

The most common fix—ensure SSH agent is running with your key:

bash

# Start SSH agent
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

# Add your SSH key
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# Or for newer ed25519 keys
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# Verify key is loaded
ssh-add -l

2Test SSH connection to Git host

Verify SSH access to your Git provider:

bash

# For GitHub
ssh -T [email protected]

# For GitLab
ssh -T [email protected]

# For Bitbucket
ssh -T [email protected]

You should see a success message with your username.

3Use HTTPS instead of Git protocol

If port 22 is blocked, switch to HTTPS:

bash

# Configure Git to use HTTPS globally
git config --global url."https://".insteadOf git://

# For GitHub specifically
git config --global url."https://github.com/".insteadOf [email protected]:

4Clean install dependencies

Reset npm state and reinstall:

bash

# Clear npm cache
npm cache clean --force

# Remove lock file and modules
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json

# Reinstall
npm install

5Configure SSH for Docker/CI

In CI/CD environments, SSH keys need explicit setup:

GitHub Actions:

yaml

- uses: webfactory/[email protected]
  with:
    ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

Docker:

dockerfile

# Mount SSH socket
docker run -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/ssh-agent ...

# Or use BuildKit secrets
RUN --mount=type=ssh npm install

6Use deploy tokens for CI

For private repos in CI, use HTTPS with tokens instead of SSH:

bash

# Configure Git to use token
git config --global url."https://${GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/".insteadOf "https://github.com/"

# Or update package.json to use HTTPS
"dependencies": {
  "private-pkg": "https://${GITHUB_TOKEN}@github.com/org/repo.git"
}

Advanced notes

For large monorepos with many Git dependencies, npm may open too many concurrent SSH connections, causing failures. Reduce concurrency:

bash

npm install --maxsockets=2

On Windows with WSL, ensure you're using Linux SSH keys (generated within WSL) or properly mounting Windows SSH keys. The Windows and WSL file systems have different SSH key handling.

For corporate firewalls blocking port 22, configure SSH to use port 443:

bash

# ~/.ssh/config
Host github.com
  Hostname ssh.github.com
  Port 443
  User git

How to fix npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE npm ERR! errno 128 npm ERR! Exit status 128 in npm

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Typical symptoms

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How to fix "npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE npm ERR! errno 128 npm ERR! Exit status 128"

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