npm-install-claude-error.md

$ npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall mkdir
npm ERR! path /usr/local/lib/node_modules
npm ERR! errno -13
npm ERR! Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules'
npm ERR!  [Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/local/lib/node_modules'] {
npm ERR!   errno: -13,
npm ERR!   code: 'EACCES',
npm ERR!   syscall: 'mkdir',
npm ERR!   path: '/usr/local/lib/node_modules'
npm ERR! }
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! The operation was rejected by your operating system.
npm ERR! It is likely you do not have the permissions to access this file as the current user
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you believe this might be a permissions issue, please double-check the
npm ERR! permissions of the file and its containing directories, or try running
npm ERR! the command again as root/Administrator.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/gengwg/.npm/_logs/2025-08-07T05_22_23_048Z-debug-0.log

Solution: Configure npm to use a local bin directory

1. First, create a ~/.npm-global/bin directory if it doesn't exist:

   mkdir -p ~/.npm-global/bin

2. Add this to your shell config (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile):

   export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH

3. Update npm configuration:

   npm config set prefix ~/.npm-global

4. Source your shell config (or restart terminal):

   source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc

5. Now try installing again:

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code