husky ".husky/pre-commit: command not found" - Fix Hook Script in CI

By Daniel Zoghalchali·Latchkey

This is the runtime side of husky: a Git hook (e.g. .husky/pre-commit) runs but a command inside it - lint-staged, a linter, a formatter - is not found because it was not installed or is not on PATH in that context.

What this error means

A commit or a hook-triggering step fails with .husky/pre-commit: line N: <tool>: command not found. The hook itself runs, but the tool it calls is missing - often in CI commits or environments without devDependencies.

.husky/pre-commit: line 4: lint-staged: command not found
husky - pre-commit script failed (code 127)

Diagnose it: the shell in CI is not your shell

Package scripts run under a different shell, a different PATH, and a non-interactive environment on a runner. Most scripts that fail only in CI are relying on something the login shell gave them locally: a tool on PATH, an environment variable from a dotfile, or a TTY.

# what the script can actually see
npm run env | grep -E "^(PATH|NODE_ENV|CI)=" 

# is the binary on PATH for the script, not just for you?
npm exec -- which <tool> || echo "not resolvable from npm scripts"

# run the exact script with tracing
sh -x -c "$(node -p "require('./package.json').scripts.build")"

Common causes

The hook’s tool is not installed in this context

A hook invoking lint-staged/eslint/prettier fails when those devDependencies are absent (e.g. a production install) or the bare binary is expected on PATH.

PATH does not include node_modules/.bin

Hooks run in a minimal shell. Calling a bare tool name relies on it being on PATH; without npx/node_modules/.bin, it is not found.

How to fix it

Invoke hook tools via the local binary

Call the tool through npm/npx so it resolves from node_modules.

# .husky/pre-commit
npx --no-install lint-staged
# ensure the tool is a devDependency:
npm install -D lint-staged

Skip hooks where they do not belong

1. Do not rely on devDependency hook tools in production installs.
2. In CI that does not need hooks, set HUSKY=0 to disable them.
3. Ensure any committing CI job installs the hook tools first.

Make failures fail the job

A multi-command script can report success while a middle command failed, which produces the worst kind of CI result: a green build that shipped something broken.

# pipefail is NOT set by default in every runner shell
- name: Build
  shell: bash
  run: |
    set -euo pipefail
    npm run build | tee build.log

How to prevent it

• Call hook tools via npx --no-install or node_modules/.bin.
• Keep hook tools as installed devDependencies.
• Disable husky (HUSKY=0) in contexts without dev deps.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

References

• Node.js documentation
• npm CLI documentation
• GitHub Actions documentation