Heroku failing to start my node app because its trying to do it with nodemon

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 Procfile looks like this:

web: npm start

And when I push to heroku the dyno crashes with this error:

2014-03-24T19:24:59.669412+00:00 app[web.1]: > my-app@0.0.1 start /app
2014-03-24T19:24:59.669412+00:00 app[web.1]: > nodemon app.js
2014-03-24T19:24:59.669412+00:00 app[web.1]:
2014-03-24T19:24:59.669412+00:00 app[web.1]:
2014-03-24T19:24:59.710228+00:00 app[web.1]:
2014-03-24T19:24:59.701246+00:00 app[web.1]: sh: nodemon: not found

I even tried npm installing nodemon as a package.json dependency, and checking in node_modules/nodemon but no luck. (nodemon needs to be installed with npm install nodemon -g for that to work anyway)

Any ideas?

My package.json:

{
    "name": "my-app",
    "version": "0.0.1",
    "private": true,
    "main": "app.js",
    "scripts": {
        "start": "node app.js"
    },
    "dependencies": {
        "requirejs": "~2.1.10",
        "underscore": "~1.5.2",
        "express": "~3.4.8",
        "ejs": "~0.8.5",
        "less-middleware": "~0.1.15",
        "socket.io": "~0.9.16",
        "tail": "~0.3.5",
        "async": "~0.2.10",
        "mongoose": "~3.8.5",
        "mkdirp": "~0.3.5",
        "ejs-locals": "~1.0.2",
        "aws-sdk": "~2.0.0-rc8",
        "knox": "~0.8.8",
        "connect-multiparty": "~1.0.3",
        "uuid": "~1.4.1",
        "nodemon": "~1.0.14"
    },
    "devDependencies": {
        "grunt": "~0.4.2",
        "grunt-contrib-clean": "~0.5.0",
        "grunt-contrib-copy": "~0.4.1",
        "grunt-contrib-requirejs": "~0.4.1",
        "grunt-recess": "~0.5.0",
        "grunt-contrib-cssmin": "~0.7.0",
        "grunt-mocha-test": "~0.9.0",
        "grunt-forever": "~0.4.1",
        "matchdep": "~0.3.0",
        "jshint": "~2.4.3",
        "precommit-hook": "~0.3.10",
        "mocha": "~1.17.1",
        "supertest": "~0.9.0",
        "chai": "~1.9.0",
        "sinon": "~1.8.2",
        "karma-sinon": "~1.0.2",
        "karma-script-launcher": "~0.1.0",
        "karma-chrome-launcher": "~0.1.2",
        "karma-firefox-launcher": "~0.1.3",
        "karma-requirejs": "~0.2.1",
        "karma-html2js-preprocessor": "~0.1.0",
        "karma-jasmine": "~0.1.5",
        "karma-coffee-preprocessor": "~0.1.3",
        "karma-phantomjs-launcher": "~0.1.2",
        "karma": "~0.10.9",
        "karma-mocha": "~0.1.1",
        "grunt-karma": "~0.6.2",
        "karma-chai": "~0.1.0"
    },
    "config": {
        "precommit": {
            "lint": true
        }
    },
    "engines": {
        "node": "0.10.x"
    }
}

Update

Sorry to have left everyone hanging all this time! If I remember correctly my issue in the end was my buildpack which was overriding the web: role in my Procfile.

I've since switched to different buildpacks, namely: ddollar/heroku-buildpack-multi

With the following .buildpacks file:

ryandotsmith/nginx-buildpack
heroku/heroku-buildpack-nodejs

And my Procfile looks like this:

web: bin/start-nginx ./node_modules/.bin/forever --minUptime 10000 --spinSleepTime 1000 app.js

Answer 1

Change your Procfile to this:

web: node app.js

Being app.js the entry point to your app.

This is assuming you don't really need nodemon in your app, since you have listed it at the package.json sample you provided.

Answer 2

Recently I'm working on deployed my node js appication in heroku by using nodemon, for it's working fine. we have to follow few step to reslove nodemon is not found.

1)Package.json

 npm start: nodemon server.js

2)We need to modified procfile like below.

 web: nodemon server.js

3)Use below command line to login for heroku

 $ heroku login

4)Create new application

   $heroku create <appication-name>

I think most of the developer directly deployed to heroku through github Id. Locally node_modules are work fine ,after deployed your application in heroku (inside we are n't able to access the node_modules), so for that we have access the respository.

5)Clone the repository from heroku

$ heroku git:clone -a <application-name>
$ cd cv-application

Now we are able access the application.

6)Delete you node_modules and try to install package by using below command.

$ npm install.

Deploy your changes.

$ git add .
$ git commit -am "make it better"
$ git push heroku master.

npm version sholud be 6.4.1.

Answer 3

I know that OP got the answer but I thought I might share what worked for me, in a slightly different senario:

Procfile contains the following:

web: npm start

And for my package.json file I defined:

"scripts":{
    "start": "node ./bin/www"
}

And that fixed this issue for me.

Answer 4

Include nodemon as dev dependencies not as dependencies.

using this command remove nodemon.

npm uninstall nodemon

now install nodemon

npm install -D nodemon

In production or in deployment you shouldn't be using nodemon.