How to fix npm ERR! code EPREPAREGIT npm ERR! Error preparing git dependency in npm

First, confirm that Git is installed and available in your system PATH. Open a terminal and run:

git --version

If Git is not installed, download and install it from https://git-scm.com/download. On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install git

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install git

After installation, verify again that git --version returns a version number.

Verify that the Git URL in your package.json is correct and you have access to it. Open package.json and find your Git dependency:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "my-package": "github:user/repo#branch"
  }
}

Test that the repository is accessible by running:

git ls-remote https://github.com/user/repo.git

Replace with your actual repository URL. If the command fails, either the URL is incorrect, the repository doesn't exist, or you don't have access permissions.

If you're using SSH Git URLs, switch to HTTPS to avoid SSH key configuration issues. Change your package.json from:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "my-package": "git+ssh://[email protected]/user/repo.git#branch"
  }
}

To:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "my-package": "git+https://github.com/user/repo.git#branch"
  }
}

After updating package.json, delete node_modules and package-lock.json, then reinstall:

rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

If you must use SSH URLs, ensure your SSH keys are properly configured. Test SSH connectivity:

ssh -T [email protected]

For GitHub, this should return something like: "Hi username! You've successfully authenticated..."

If it fails with "Host key verification failed", add GitHub to your known_hosts:

ssh-keyscan -H github.com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Make sure your SSH key is added to the ssh-agent:

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Sometimes npm cache becomes corrupted. Clear it and reinstall:

npm cache clean --force
rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

If you're in a Docker container, ensure you're running npm install as a non-root user or with the correct permissions. If running as root causes issues, use:

npm config set unsafe-perm true