Start script missing error when running npm start

Question

I have been constantly receiving this error when trying to debug my node application using the npm start command.

Error:

npm ERR! Windows_NT 6.3.9600 
npm ERR! argv "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\\\node.exe" "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "start" 
npm ERR! node v0.12.7 
npm ERR! npm v2.11.3 

npm ERR! missing script: start 
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! If you need help, you may report this error at: 
npm ERR! <https://github.com/npm/npm/issues>
npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request: 
npm ERR! C:\Users\andrmoll.NORTHAMERICA\Documents\GitHub\SVIChallenge\npm-debug.log

From the debug file:

 

Error: missing script: start 
          at run (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\lib\run-script.js:142:19) 
          at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\lib\run-script.js:58:5 
          at C:\Program
Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:345:5 
          at checkBinReferences_ (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:309:45) 
          at final (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:343:3) 
          at then (C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:113:5) 
          at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\read-package-json\read-json.js:300:12 
          at evalmachine.<anonymous>:334:14 at C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\node_modules\graceful-fs\graceful-fs.js:102:5 
        at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (evalmachine.<anonymous>:95:15)

Answer 1

It seems that there is an undefined start script in your package.json file or your project does not contain a server.js file. Could be either of the two. You can either change the name of your application script to server.js or add the following to your package.json

"scripts": { "start": "node your-script.js" }

You could also run the line below directly:-

node your-script.js