zsh: command not found: yarn

zsh: command not found: yarn means zsh searched every directory in your PATH and none of them holds a yarn executable. Yarn is not part of Node.js, so installing Node does not give you yarn. On a Mac the cause is almost always one of three things:

1. Yarn was never installed for the Node.js you are running now.
2. The project uses modern Yarn through Corepack, and Corepack is not enabled.
3. Yarn is installed, but its directory is not on the PATH of this shell.

Find out which case you are in

Run these in the terminal that shows the error:

command -v node npm corepack yarn
node --version
npm prefix -g

• If node is also missing, fix Node.js first; see node: command not found.
• npm prefix -g prints where global npm packages go. Their commands live in the bin folder under it: /opt/homebrew/bin for Homebrew Node on Apple silicon, /usr/local/bin for Homebrew on Intel or the nodejs.org installer, and ~/.nvm/versions/node/<version>/bin with nvm.
• Look at the project's package.json. A "packageManager": "[email protected]" line means the project expects Corepack (case 2). No such line, or a yarn.lock with a # yarn lockfile v1 header, means Yarn Classic 1.x.

Fix 1: enable Corepack (Yarn 2 and later)

Corepack reads packageManager and runs the exact Yarn version the project asks for. Node.js ships it from 14.19 and 16.9 up to 24. Node.js 25 and later do not, so install it from npm first:

node --version             # v25 or later? then:
npm install -g corepack
corepack enable            # creates the yarn and pnpm shims
rehash
yarn --version

corepack enable writes the yarn shim next to the corepack binary. With Homebrew Node or nvm that is the same folder as node, which is already on your PATH. If you install Corepack with Homebrew instead (brew install corepack), note that it conflicts with Homebrew's yarn formula; use one or the other.

Fix 2: install Yarn Classic (1.x)

For an older project that is still on Yarn 1, either of these works:

npm install -g yarn        # installs into the bin folder of `npm prefix -g`
# or
brew install yarn          # Homebrew's yarn formula is Yarn 1.22

Do not use sudo npm install -g. If npm says it has no permission to write to the global folder, your Node install is owned by root; switch to Homebrew Node or nvm instead of forcing it with sudo.

Fix 3: yarn exists but zsh cannot see it

Find it, then add its folder to PATH:

ls "$(npm prefix -g)/bin/yarn" /opt/homebrew/bin/yarn /usr/local/bin/yarn 2>/dev/null
print -l $path             # the directories zsh searches, one per line

If yarn sits in a folder that is missing from the list, add that folder in ~/.zprofile and open a new terminal tab:

# ~/.zprofile on Apple silicon with Homebrew
eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

For a custom npm prefix, add its bin folder instead, for example export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH". Why ~/.zprofile and not ~/.zshrc, and what the shell reads in which order, is in zsh: command not found on macOS: how PATH works.

It worked yesterday: nvm and version switches

With nvm, each Node.js version has its own global packages. yarn installed under Node 20 is gone after nvm use 22. Either install it again for the new version, carry your global packages over when you install a version, or let Corepack handle Yarn per project:

nvm install 22 --reinstall-packages-from=20

The same thing happens in a new terminal if your ~/.zshrc loads nvm but the default alias points at a version that does not have Yarn. Check with nvm alias default.

yarn works in Terminal but not in an editor or script

Terminal.app, iTerm2 and the VS Code terminal start zsh as a login shell and read both ~/.zprofile and ~/.zshrc. A script run by cron, a Git hook or a GUI app does not read them. In those places call Yarn by its full path from command -v yarn, or set PATH in the tool's own configuration.

The other error: yarn global commands not found

If yarn itself works but a tool you installed with yarn global add does not, that is a different folder. Yarn Classic puts global binaries in the directory printed by yarn global bin; add that one to PATH. Modern Yarn has no global installs: use yarn dlx <package> instead.

Sources

• Yarn installation
• Node.js Corepack documentation
• Yarn Classic installation
• nvm
• Homebrew yarn formula