quarto "command not found" on the runner in CI

Quarto is a standalone CLI, not a Python package, so pip install does not provide it. A quarto render step on a runner that never installed the Quarto binary fails with "command not found".

What this error means

A step calling quarto render ... fails with "quarto: command not found" and exit code 127, even though Python and Jupyter are installed.

quarto

/home/runner/work/_temp/script.sh: line 1: quarto: command not found
Error: Process completed with exit code 127.

Common causes

The Quarto CLI was never installed

Quarto ships as a separate binary; installing Python packages does not put quarto on PATH.

Quarto installed but not on PATH

A manual install placed the binary in a location not added to PATH for the step.

How to fix it

Install Quarto with the official action

Use the quarto-dev setup action to install the CLI and add it to PATH before rendering.

.github/workflows/ci.yml

- uses: quarto-dev/quarto-actions/setup@v2
  with:
    version: '1.5.57'
- run: quarto render

Install the Quarto binary directly

Download and install the .deb (or platform package) when not using the action.

Terminal

curl -LO https://quarto.org/download/latest/quarto-linux-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i quarto-linux-amd64.deb
quarto check

How to prevent it

Install Quarto via its setup action as an explicit CI step.
Pin the Quarto version so renders are reproducible.
Run quarto check after install to confirm it is on PATH.