pnpm workspaces does not allow installing of dependencies on brand new projects `cannot read properites of undefined (reading 'manifest')`

Question

I'm trying to use pnpm with lerna to create a monorepo. Unfortunately it all fails when attempting to install lerna itself via pnpm.

Current project structure:

lerna.json contents:

{
  "packages": ["functions/*", "libs/*"],
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "npmClient": "pnpm",
  "publish": {
    "ignoreChanges": ["ignored-file", "*.md"],
    "message": "chore(release): publish",
    "registry": "https://npm.pkg.github.com"
  },
}

package.json contents:

{
  "name": "roci-backend",
  "private": true,
  "version": "0.0.0"
}

and finally, the pnpm-workspace.yaml:

## include
- "functions/**"
- "libs/**"

pnpm version: 7.0.1 node version: 16.15.0 OS: win 10

Error message:

❯ pnpm add -D -w lerna
 ERROR  Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'manifest')

Stack trace:

"stack": "pnpm: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'manifest')\n    at C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:120885:49\n    at Array.map (<anonymous>)\n    at C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:120882:39\n    at Array.map (<anonymous>)\n    at getImporters (C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:120878:34)\n    at recursive (C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:120900:31)\n    at async handler (C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:121294:11)\n    at async C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:176187:21\n    at async run (C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:176161:34)\n    at async runPnpm (C:\\Users\\Seb\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\pnpm-global\\5\\node_modules\\.pnpm\\[email protected]\\node_modules\\pnpm\\dist\\pnpm.cjs:176379:5)"

I have also tried installing many other older versions, as old as 5.xx, but the exact same error persist.

Answer 1

I had a similar problem without Lerna and the easiest solution we found was to install a Linux distro with WSL and run pnpm commands from Linux runtime. I got it working with Windows 10 Pro, Ubuntu 22 WSL version: 1

Answer 2

Although I had a different setup (SST project with pnpm workspaces), the same error was popping up for me when trying to install any library in one of the workspaces.

The issue disappeared after adding a "version": "0.0.1" to the package.json file inside the workspace, the key was missing entirely.