Getting started `npx epiccli new <project-name>` command fails

[keepforever]

Looking to kick off a new epic stack project and getting stuck at the start.

I made sure to set the node version to that spec'd in the "engines" of the package.json

projects nv
v22.18.0
projects npx epicli new bmt-epic-1

 remix   v2.16.8 💿 Let's build a better website...
      ◼  Directory: Using bmt-epic-1 as project directory

      ◼  Template: Using epicweb-dev/epic-stack...
      ✔  Template copied

 ██████  Dependencies installing with npm...

      ▲  Oh no! Failed to install dependencies.

❌ Error: Error: Command failed: npx --yes create-remix@2.16.8 --install --no-git-init --init-script --template epicweb-dev/epic-stack bmt-epic-1
    at genericNodeError (node:internal/errors:983:15)
    at wrappedFn (node:internal/errors:537:14)
    at checkExecSyncError (node:child_process:915:11)
    at execSync (node:child_process:987:15)
    at newProject (file:///Users/briancilenti/.npm/_npx/35d972753c69f246/node_modules/epicli/dist/commands/new.js:6:9)
    at Object.handler (file:///Users/briancilenti/.npm/_npx/35d972753c69f246/node_modules/epicli/dist/bin/epicli.js:63:24)
    at file:///Users/briancilenti/.npm/_npx/35d972753c69f246/node_modules/yargs/build/lib/command.js:206:54
    at maybeAsyncResult (file:///Users/briancilenti/.npm/_npx/35d972753c69f246/node_modules/yargs/build/lib/utils/maybe-async-result.js:9:15)
    at CommandInstance.handleValidationAndGetResult (file:///Users/briancilenti/.npm/_npx/35d972753c69f246/node_modules/yargs/build/lib/command.js:205:25)
    at CommandInstance.applyMiddlewareAndGetResult (file:///Users/briancilenti/.npm/_npx/35d972753c69f246/node_modules/yargs/build/lib/command.js:245:20) {
  status: 1,
  signal: null,
  output: [ null, null, null ],
  pid: 17671,
  stdout: null,
  stderr: null
}

[kentcdodds]

Generated by AI:

Thanks for the report! The stack trace shows epicli failing while it shells out to npx --yes create-remix@2.16.8 --install --no-git-init --init-script --template epicweb-dev/epic-stack <dir>. That failure happens during the npm install step, but epicli isn't piping stderr/stdout, so we can't see the real error. A couple things to try so we can narrow it down:

1. Run the command directly with verbose npm logs:

• NPM_CONFIG_FOREGROUND_SCRIPTS=true npm_config_loglevel=verbose npx --yes create-remix@2.16.8 --install --no-git-init --init-script --template epicweb-dev/epic-stack <dir>

2. Or skip install and run it manually (this usually surfaces the real failing package):

• npx --yes create-remix@2.16.8 --no-install --no-git-init --init-script --template epicweb-dev/epic-stack <dir>
• cd <dir>
• npm install --loglevel=verbose

If the failure is a native dependency (common offenders are sharp, @sentry/profiling-node, or @prisma/client), installing Xcode CLT (xcode-select --install) and re-running npm install usually resolves it on macOS. If the verbose log shows something else, please paste the last ~50 lines here.

Also, could you share node -v, npm -v, and npm config get registry? That helps rule out version/registry issues.

Summary

• Prepared a troubleshooting comment draft with steps to surface the underlying npm install error and requested runtime details.

[keepforever]

Output after running with requested arguments:

tutorials NPM_CONFIG_FOREGROUND_SCRIPTS=true npm_config_loglevel=verbose npx --yes create-remix@2.16.8 --install --no-git-init --init-script --template epicweb-dev/epic-stack epic-test-1
npm verbose cli /Users/briancilenti/.nvm/versions/node/v22.18.0/bin/node /Users/briancilenti/.nvm/versions/node/v22.18.0/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npm-cli.js
npm info using npm@10.9.3
npm info using node@v22.18.0
npm verbose title npm exec create-remix@2.16.8 --install --no-git-init --init-script --template epicweb-dev/epic-stack epic-test-1
npm verbose argv "exec" "--yes" "--" "create-remix@2.16.8" "--install" "--no-git-init" "--init-script" "--template" "epicweb-dev/epic-stack" "epic-test-1"
npm verbose logfile logs-max:10 dir:/Users/briancilenti/.npm/_logs/2026-01-31T17_47_55_761Z-
npm verbose logfile /Users/briancilenti/.npm/_logs/2026-01-31T17_47_55_761Z-debug-0.log
npm http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/create-remix 204ms (cache revalidated)

 remix   v2.16.8 💿 Let's build a better website...
      ◼  Directory: Using epic-test-1 as project directory

      ◼  Template: Using epicweb-dev/epic-stack...
      ✔  Template copied

 ██████  Dependencies installing with npm...

      ▲  Oh no! Failed to install dependencies.
npm verbose cwd /Users/briancilenti/Desktop/tutorials
npm verbose os Darwin 25.2.0
npm verbose node v22.18.0
npm verbose npm  v10.9.3
npm verbose exit 1
npm verbose code 1

[keepforever]

Did the behavior of the CLI change? The reason I want to rely on the cli is, in the past, it took care of the fly deployment for both prod and dev envs.

[kentcdodds]

The behavior did not change as far as I know. The easiest way to test it would be to try to do things manually and see what part breaks.

[damiensedgwick]

@keepforever did you find a fix for your issue?

i've just testing the cli on 22.18.0 and 22.23.1 and all appears to be working.

[keepforever]

@keepforever did you find a fix for your issue?

i've just testing the cli on 22.18.0 and 22.23.1 and all appears to be working.

No, I gave up. My new stack is TanStack Start on cloudflair. You can point your agent at the epic stack to have it copy the handrolled auth stuff from Epic Stack, i think.

I used Clerk for my Auth tho.

[kentcdodds]

You can point your agent at the epic stack to have it copy the handrolled auth stuff from Epic Stack, i think.

Yep I do this exact same thing with Remix and Cloudflare. works great