Particle CLI Errors out

Recently, I have found the particle CLI tool becoming very slow on Windows.

The main problem is that when ever I try to run ‘particle identify’, I get the following error:

$ particle identify
Cannot find module 'safer-buffer'

I have upgraded Node, npm and particle-cli all with no change. The particles are in listening mode.

What else should I be trying?

The Particle CLI installer installs an isolated version of node. You likely now have conflicting global (-g) install and isolated install versions. I recommend removing the -g version:

  • Open a Command Prompt window and run the command:
npm uninstall -g particle-cli

If you get an error about npm not found, just continue onto the next step. This removes a previous manual install.

There are additional tips here.

To upgrade the CLI, use the command:

particle upgrade-cli

Don’t use the npm install -g particle-cli option, as that will break your install again.