The 'write after end' error occurs when npm attempts to write data to a stream after it has been closed, typically during package extraction. This is often caused by npm version bugs, network issues, or corrupted cache.
The "npm ERR! write after end" error occurs when npm attempts to write data to a stream (file or network connection) after that stream has already been closed or ended. This is a stream handling error that happens during the package extraction phase of npm install, typically when npm's internal modules are decompressing and writing downloaded packages to disk. The error fundamentally violates Node.js stream rules: once a stream's end() method has been called, no further writes are allowed. During npm's extraction process, if the stream closes prematurely due to network issues, timing problems, or internal race conditions in older npm versions, subsequent write attempts fail with this error. This error was particularly prevalent in npm versions 5.7.0 through 6.0.x due to a stream handling bug in the pacote module.
Start with cache verification, which scans for corrupted entries:
npm cache verify
npm installIf the error persists, try a harder reset:
npm cache clean --force
npm installThe --force flag bypasses safety checks. Sometimes the error is transient due to partial downloads left in cache.
The package-lock.json file can become corrupted or misaligned with your npm version:
rm package-lock.json
npm installDeleting it forces npm to recalculate all dependencies from scratch. This resolves issues where the lockfile contains incorrect stream expectations.
On Windows, use del package-lock.json instead.
Older npm versions (5.7.0 through 6.0.x) contained confirmed stream handling bugs:
npm install -g npm@latest
npm cache verify
npm installUpdate npm globally first, verify the cache, then retry installation. Check your current version with npm --version before upgrading.
If using a proxy, corporate firewall, or VPN, these can interrupt the extraction stream. Test direct connectivity:
npm ping
npm config get registryIf using a proxy, configure it explicitly:
npm config set proxy http://proxy.example.com:8080
npm config set https-proxy http://proxy.example.com:8080Or temporarily disable the proxy to test:
npm config delete proxy
npm config delete https-proxy
npm installThe default timeout may be too aggressive for large packages or slow connections:
npm install --verbose --fetch-timeout=60000Or permanently adjust the timeout:
npm config set fetch-timeout 60000
npm installIncreasing it to 60 seconds gives npm more time to complete extraction before stream closure. The --verbose flag shows exactly where the process fails.
If all above steps fail, downgrade to npm 5.6.0, which predates the regression bug:
npm install -g [email protected]
npm installOr try a specific v6 LTS version known to be stable:
npm install -g [email protected]
npm installThis is a temporary workaround only. Update npm again once the issue is fixed.
The root cause in npm 5.7.0+ involved a timing issue where the pkgJson transform in pacote was operating asynchronously, but the tar extraction module expected synchronous stream behavior. This created a race condition where the extraction stream could close before all writes completed.
This was primarily fixed in npm 6.1.0 and later versions. However, network-related variants of this error can still occur with any npm version if the npm registry is slow, unreachable, or if your connection is unstable.
Additionally, if you're extracting very large monorepo projects with thousands of dependencies, you may hit this error due to system I/O limitations rather than npm bugs—in such cases, increasing ulimit settings and ensuring adequate disk space is critical.
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