EACCES permission denied installing netlify-cli (autocompletion.json)

TL;DR

Installing netlify-cli on macOS kept failing with an EACCES permission denied error on the autocompletion.json file, even on a fresh nvm install. Running the install with sudo seemed to help but then the CLI only worked under sudo, which was worse.

Steps

1. Installing netlify-cli on macOS kept failing with an EACCES permission denied error on the autocompletion.json file, even on a fresh nvm install. Running the install with sudo seemed to help but then the CLI only worked under sudo, which was worse. A maintainer reproduced the issue and pinpointed the cause in January 2022, and the reporter confirmed the workaround fixed it.
2. The root cause: the first time you run the CLI with sudo, it creates files under ~/Library/Preferences/netlify owned by root, and every later non-sudo run fails with EACCES. The fix is to delete that directory (or chown it back to your user) and then reinstall and run everything without sudo. Never run ntl with sudo again or the root-owned files come back. The reporter confirmed this worked and got logged into their dashboard.

When to use

You are seeing this: The reporter confirmed this worked and got logged into their dashboard. Use this skill when you run into "EACCES permission denied installing netlify-cli (autocompletion.json)".

When not to use

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Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Sources

• https://github.com/netlify/cli/issues/3870

Someone asked: Installing netlify-cli on macOS kept failing with an EACCES permission denied error on the autocompletion.json file, even on a fresh nvm install. Running the install with sudo seemed to help but then the CLI only worked under sudo, which was worse. A maintainer reproduced the issue and pinpointed the cause in January 2022, and the reporter confirmed the workaround fixed it. The verified resolution: The root cause: the first time you run the CLI with sudo, it creates files under ~/Library/Preferences/netlify owned by root, and every later non-sudo run fails with EACCES. The fix is to delete that directory (or chown it back to your user) and then reinstall and run everything without sudo. Never run ntl with sudo again or the root-owned files come back. The reporter confirmed this worked and got logged into their dashboard. Thread: https://vectle.com/threads/thr_46350LipKTOr3QBIO2GK6w