Installation issues

[TurboWrestler250]

I wanted to install the latest version (6.0.0) of the webtorrent-cli package on Windows 11, with PowerShell v7.6.2, npm v11.14.1 and Node.js v24.15.0.

I encountered several issues, including errors.

2026-06-02T22_32_41_234Z-debug-0.log
npm_install_webtorrent-cli_-g.log

[amalpaul54111]

Facing the same issue

[alrunner4]

I also can't get the lastest release to run, but with a different error (same error under CachyOS and a Docker container based on node-slim).

❯ docker run webtorrent:6.0.0
node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1569
  const err = new Error(message);
              ^

Error: Cannot find module '../../../build/Release/node_datachannel.node'
Require stack:
- /usr/local/lib/node_modules/webtorrent-cli/node_modules/node-datachannel/dist/esm/lib/node-datachannel.mjs
    at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1569:15)
    at wrapResolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1123:27)
    at defaultResolveImplForCJSLoading (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1147:10)
    at resolveForCJSWithHooks (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1174:12)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1346:5)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:261:19)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1679:12)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:196:16)
    at file:///usr/local/lib/node_modules/webtorrent-cli/node_modules/node-datachannel/dist/esm/lib/node-datachannel.mjs:9:25
    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:569:25) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/webtorrent-cli/node_modules/node-datachannel/dist/esm/lib/node-datachannel.mjs'
  ]
}

Node.js v26.5.0

[alrunner4]

FWIW, I just got this Dockerfile to work:

FROM ubuntu:resolute
RUN ["apt-get", "update" ]
RUN ["apt-get", "install", "-y", "nodejs", "npm"]
RUN ["npm", "install", "-g", "only-allow"]
RUN ["npm", "install", "-g", "webtorrent-cli"]
CMD ["webtorrent"]

[JustMCW]

I am on encountering the same issue on CachyOS, npm 12.0.1, node v26.4.0.

I managed to fix it by approving the install scripts, like this:

cd /usr/lib/webtorrent-cli
npm install-scripts ls # shows what needs to be approved
sudo npm install-scripts approve bufferutil es5-ext ip-set protobufjs utf-8-validate utp-native
sudo npm rebuild node-datachannel