Heroku failing node app - try to run nodemon instead of node - node.js

Question

I'm deploying my node app to Heroku and it's trying to invoke it with nodemon rather than the node app.js I have defined. my package.json(partial) looks like:
"scripts": {
"start": "node app.js",
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
},
"engines": {
"node": "7.9.0"
},
when I run heroku logs I get
2018-02-22T22:41:44.798831+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Starting process with command `npm start`
2018-02-22T22:41:47.235623+00:00 app[web.1]:
2018-02-22T22:41:47.235654+00:00 app[web.1]: > api-barber-app#1.0.0 start /app
2018-02-22T22:41:47.235657+00:00 app[web.1]: > nodemon app.js
2018-02-22T22:41:47.235659+00:00 app[web.1]:
2018-02-22T22:41:47.247464+00:00 app[web.1]: sh: 1: nodemon: not found
2018-02-22T22:41:47.253052+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! file sh
2018-02-22T22:41:47.253319+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
2018-02-22T22:41:47.253543+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! errno ENOENT
2018-02-22T22:41:47.253787+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! syscall spawn
2018-02-22T22:41:47.254995+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! api-barber-app#1.0.0 start: `nodemon app.js`
2018-02-22T22:41:47.255145+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
2018-02-22T22:41:47.255420+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR!
2018-02-22T22:41:47.255617+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! Failed at the api-barber-app#1.0.0 start script.
2018-02-22T22:41:47.255793+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
2018-02-22T22:41:47.269400+00:00 app[web.1]:
2018-02-22T22:41:47.269715+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
2018-02-22T22:41:47.269916+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! /app/.npm/_logs/2018-02-22T22_41_47_261Z-debug.log
2018-02-22T22:41:47.348415+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Process exited with status 1
2018-02-22T22:41:47.467170+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from starting to crashed
2018-02-22T22:41:47.475956+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from crashed to starting
2018-02-22T22:41:51.465439+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Starting process with command `npm start`
2018-02-22T22:41:54.918389+00:00 heroku[web.1]: Process exited with status 1
2018-02-22T22:41:54.679566+00:00 app[web.1]:
2018-02-22T22:41:54.679592+00:00 app[web.1]: > api-barber-app#1.0.0 start /app
2018-02-22T22:41:54.679594+00:00 app[web.1]: > nodemon app.js
2018-02-22T22:41:54.679596+00:00 app[web.1]:
2018-02-22T22:41:54.711632+00:00 app[web.1]: sh: 1: nodemon: not found
2018-02-22T22:41:54.759423+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
2018-02-22T22:41:54.757722+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! file sh
2018-02-22T22:41:54.761226+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! syscall spawn
2018-02-22T22:41:54.760427+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! errno ENOENT
2018-02-22T22:41:54.768513+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! api-barber-app#1.0.0 start: `nodemon app.js`
2018-02-22T22:41:54.768637+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
2018-02-22T22:41:54.768942+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR!
2018-02-22T22:41:54.769147+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! Failed at the api-barber-app#1.0.0 start script.
2018-02-22T22:41:54.769369+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
2018-02-22T22:41:54.825892+00:00 app[web.1]:
2018-02-22T22:41:54.826567+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
2018-02-22T22:41:54.827196+00:00 app[web.1]: npm ERR! /app/.npm/_logs/2018-02-22T22_41_54_816Z-debug.log
2018-02-22T22:41:54.934234+00:00 heroku[web.1]: State changed from starting to crashed
it try to run nodemon (what I had before) instead of node.js.
then when I push heroku it crash and not let me upload it right way.

Answer 1

heroku runs in a production environment by default so it does not install the dev dependencies, you can create a two npm script to avoid this error by running nodemon only in your localhost like that:
"scripts": {
"test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
"start": "node app.js",
"start:dev": "nodemon --watch"
},
and when you want to run the project locally just run in your terminal npm run start:dev and it will load app.js by nodemon.
while in heroku npm start runs by default and load app.js from a normal node command and you get rid of that error.

Answer 2

I just had the same problem. After wasting a lot of time, I discovered that the whole time I was deploying the wrong branch. So if you are writing 'git push heroku master' for instance, 'master' is the branch you are pushing even if you are currently on a different branch.

Answer 3

Looks like nodemon is not in the dependencies, can you provide the package.json, make sure nodemon is in your dependencies