npm with "nodejs system" warns about "No version is set"

[sschulze]

When I configure nodejs to "system" (nodejs 25.9.0 via homebrew) and call npm I get a warning about No version is set for nodejs:

> /opt/homebrew/bin/node -v
v25.9.0

> /opt/homebrew/bin/npm -v
11.12.1

> ~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/20.11.1/bin/npm -v
10.2.4

> asdf list nodejs
 *20.11.1

> asdf set -u nodejs 20.11.1
> npm -v
10.2.4

> asdf set -u nodejs system
> npm -v
No version is set for nodejs; please run `asdf set [options] nodejs <version>`
11.12.1

[arichiardi]

This seems to be happening here as well, even though the binaries are prenset

$ ls /home/user/.asdf/shims
corepack  node  npm  npx

$ echo $PATH
/home/user/.asdf/shims:...

I also noticed now you have to pass -- if you want additional cli options for node-build:

$ asdf cmd nodejs resolve lts -- --latest-available
24.15.0

EDIT: in my case the npm command was not served by any installed npm version - I discovered that by doing:

asdf shimversions npm

[Stratus3D]

Yes, using asdf shimversions npm should help you see what versions of npm you've got available. And type -a npm will show which npm executables are on your path. Running both should reveal your issue.

[opncow]

This is a regression from #426 (90b8ecaa, merged 2025-06-18), which swapped the order of the two npm lookups in shims/npm:

-  npm_location="${ASDF_NODEJS_CANON_NPM_PATH:-$(search_npm_on_current_path || manually_search_npm_bin)}"
+  npm_location="${ASDF_NODEJS_CANON_NPM_PATH:-$(manually_search_npm_bin || search_npm_on_current_path)}"

manually_search_npm_bin starts with:

installed_dir=$(asdf where nodejs)

Before #426 that function only ran as a fallback, so on a normal PATH it was never reached. Now it runs first, unconditionally — and when the resolved version is system, asdf where nodejs exits 1 after printing No version is set for nodejs; please run 'asdf set [options] nodejs <version>' to stderr. The || then correctly falls through to search_npm_on_current_path, which finds the system npm, so npm itself works fine; the warning is pure stderr noise on every single npm invocation.

That also explains why node is unaffected while npm warns: only npm has this plugin-level wrapper.

Reproduction on asdf 0.20.0 / asdf-nodejs 779c8dc (current tip), macOS, homebrew node as system:

$ cat ~/.tool-versions
nodejs system

$ node --version          # plain core shim, no plugin wrapper
v26.7.0

$ npm --version           # goes through plugins/nodejs/shims/npm
No version is set for nodejs; please run `asdf set [options] nodejs <version>`
11.19.0

$ asdf where nodejs; echo "exit=$?"
No version is set for nodejs; please run `asdf set [options] nodejs <version>`
exit=1

Note this is unrelated to the missing-shim diagnosis in the comments above — asdf shimversions npm lists installed versions correctly here (nodejs 22.13.0, nodejs 20.11.0), and asdf current nodejs resolves cleanly to system. The warning appears because the version is system, i.e. exactly when asdf where has nothing to report and the PATH fallback is the intended path.

Suggested fix — asdf where failing is an expected, non-exceptional outcome here, so its stderr should not be surfaced:

 manually_search_npm_bin() {
   local installed_dir= bin_directories=

-  installed_dir=$(asdf where nodejs)
+  installed_dir=$(asdf where nodejs 2>/dev/null) || return 1
   bin_directories=(bin)

The exit status is still 1 for system, so the || fallback behaviour of #426 is preserved unchanged — only the stray stderr line disappears. Verified locally.