Fix NPM no write permissions to global system directory

When you install npm packages globally using the -g flag, you might encounter an error message indicating that you do not have write permissions to the global system directory. This issue typically arises due to insufficient permissions for the user account trying to perform the installation.

Tip

EACCES errors indicate permission denied issues.

kc@kcserver:~$ npm install -g pnpm
npm error code EACCES
npm error syscall mkdir
npm error path /usr/lib/node_modules/lib
npm error errno -13
npm error Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/lib/node_modules/lib'
npm error     at async mkdir (node:internal/fs/promises:861:10)
npm error     at async Arborist.reify (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:109:7)
npm error     at async Install.exec (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/commands/install.js:150:5)
npm error     at async Npm.exec (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/npm.js:208:9)
npm error     at async module.exports (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli/entry.js:67:5) {
npm error   errno: -13,
npm error   code: 'EACCES',
npm error   syscall: 'mkdir',
npm error   path: '/usr/lib/node_modules/lib'
npm error }
npm error
npm error The operation was rejected by your operating system.
npm error It is likely you do not have the permissions to access this file as the current user
npm error
npm error If you believe this might be a permissions issue, please double-check the
npm error permissions of the file and its containing directories, or try running
npm error the command again as root/Administrator.
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: /home/kc/.npm/_logs/2025-12-23T09_36_53_527Z-debug-0.log

To resolve this issue, you have a few options.

Method 1: Change NPM's default global directory (Recommended)

You can configure npm to use a different directory for global installation where you have write permissions.

Create a folder for global installations
```
mkdir ~/.npm-global
```
Configure NPM to use this new path
```
npm config set prefix '~/.npm-global'
```

Update shell environment

~/.bashrc

# add the following line at the end of the file
export PATH=~/.npm-global/bin:$PATH

Apply the changes
```
source ~/.bashrc
```
Re-run the installation
```
npm install -g <package>
```

Method 2: Use a Node Version Manager

There are some tools like nvm (Node Version Manager) can install Node.js and NPM directly in your user home directory that actually auto bypass the /usr/lib permission issues.

Download and install nvm

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash

Export NVM dir

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh"  # This loads nvm
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion" ] && \. "$NVM_DIR/bash_completion"  # This loads nvm bash_completion

Install a version of Node
```
nvm install node
```
Install package
```
npm install -g <package>
```

Method 3: Change default global directory ownership

You can change the ownership of the existing node_modules folder to your current user.

sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/lib/node_modules