Error running project locally - "Your codebase isn’t linked to a project on ZEIT Now"

[Painatalman]

I tried to run the app locally (with now dev), but I got this error:

Now CLI 18.0.0 dev (beta) — https://zeit.co/feedback
Error! Your codebase isn’t linked to a project on ZEIT Now. Run `now` to link it.

Running the 'now' command, on the other hand, asks me for a login, but am I supposed to have an account to run the project locally?

Steps to reproduce

In the root project folder:

1. run npm install
2. run npm install -g now
3. run now dev
4. (after getting the error) run now

Installed software and packages

• nodejs version 13.6.0
• npm version
• now version 18.0 (beta)

Possible Solution

Replacing now version 18.0 with its version 16.7.3 seems to solve the issue:

npm install now@16 -g

Check this reply to Now issue 3767 for details.

Suggestions

I suggest we either:

1. specify the now version to install globally on the project setup
2. set now as a dev dependency and ** add an npm command in package.json:

   "scripts": {
       "dev": "now dev"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
       "now": "16.7.3"        
   }

Personally, I prefer the second option, as it removes the need for a global dependency.

[Painatalman]

Since we can't set now dev as the dev script for package.json, we can define a custom script called now:

"scripts": {
        "now": "now dev"
    }

[mcoquet]

@Painatalman Sorry for the enormous delay 🙏 Instead of your solution, can you try simply running npm run dev ? It should be able to run a localhost version without needing to install now or anything else globally.

[Painatalman]

@mcoquet I can confirm I can run the project "now" (pun intended). Closing the issue.