`npm run dev` fails due to missing `xlsx@0.20.2` when creating node project with n8n CLI

[ahmedhassayoune]

Description:
I followed the official n8n node CLI guide to create a new community node project:

npm create @n8n/node@latest

After the template was generated, I ran:

npm run dev

and received the following error:

npm ERR! code ETARGET
npm ERR! notarget No matching version found for xlsx@0.20.2.
npm ERR! notarget In most cases you or one of your dependencies are requesting a package version that doesn't exist.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in: /Users/.../.npm/_logs/2025-11-24T18_47_15_985Z-debug-0.log

It seems that the xlsx@0.20.2 version referenced in the pnpm-lock.yaml does not exist on the npm registry.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Run npm create @n8n/node@latest
2. Navigate into the project folder
3. Run npm install and npm run dev

Expected Behavior:
Dependencies install correctly and the project runs in development mode.

Actual Behavior:
npm fails with a No matching version found for xlsx@0.20.2 error.

Environment:

• OS: macOS 10.15.7
• Node.js version: 22.20.0
• npm version: 10.9.3
• n8n CLI version: 0.17.0 (latest)

Additional Context:

• This may be related to xlsx being referenced via a CDN link in the pnpm-lock.yaml instead of a valid npm version.

Suggested Fix / Question:

• Could the dependency reference be updated to a valid npm version?

[feifeigood]

I have the same problem and then i deleted everything in the $HOME/.npm directory and run npm install again , it worked