Vercel CLI always returns ERR_PNPM_NO_IMPORTER_MANIFEST_FOUND

I installed the vercel CLI using the pnpm commands found in the docs. Now vercel always returns an error no mater what the command is.

$ vercel --version
 ERR_PNPM_NO_IMPORTER_MANIFEST_FOUND  No package.json (or package.yaml, or package.json5) was found in "/Users/fmoor".

I’m new to the JS ecosystem so I’m probably holding this wrong

I would expect the --version, --help, etc. commands to work regardless of package.json or other files being present.

$ uname -rsp
Darwin 24.6.0 arm

$ pnpm --version
10.24.0

$ pnpm -g list | grep vercel
vercel 48.12.1

The AI answers fixed my problem. How do I mark this closed?

This was the AI answer:

system:

This error happens because pnpm is looking for a package.json file in your current directory when running the Vercel CLI. This is a known issue with how pnpm handles global packages.

Here are a few solutions you can try:

Option 1: Use npx instead

npx vercel --version
npx vercel --help

Option 2: Install with npm globally

npm install -g vercel

Option 3: Create a temporary package.json If you want to keep using pnpm, you can create a minimal package.json in your home directory:

{
  "name": "temp",
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

Option 4: Run from a project directory Navigate to any directory that has a package.json file before running vercel commands.

The npx approach is probably the cleanest solution since it doesn’t require global installation and avoids this pnpm quirk entirely.

It seems that there is not currently an option to mark the system AI response as the solution.

Am I the only person that can see the AI response?