Cannot find module 'firebase-admin/app'

package.json requirements look like this –

  "dependencies": {
    "@sentry/node": "^5.30.0",
    "body-parser": "1.19.0",
    "express": "^4.17.1",
    "firebase-admin": "10.0.0",
    "mysql": "^2.18.1",
    "pug": "3.0.2"
  }

node_modules has the corresponding module in the path ~/node_modules/firebase-admin/lib/app

Node code reads as –

const initializeApp  = require('firebase-admin/app');

And when the app is run, the following stacktrace emerges.

 Error: Cannot find module 'firebase-admin/app'
     at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:547:15)
     at Function.Module._load (module.js:474:25)
     at Module.require (module.js:596:17)
     at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
     at Object.<anonymous> (/var/www/html/project/backend/main.js:16:24)
     at Module._compile (module.js:652:30)
     at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:663:10)
     at Module.load (module.js:565:32)
     at tryModuleLoad (module.js:505:12)
     at Function.Module._load (module.js:497:3)

I found a few problems with this issue:

I couldn't figure out how to label this issue, so I've labeled it for a human to triage. Hang tight.
This issue does not seem to follow the issue template. Make sure you provide all the required information.

I have the same issue. For some reason, running npm install resolved the error when running mocha tests from a non-debug terminal instance in Visual Studio Code, but running mocha tests from a debug terminal instance still yields this error. The node_modules package is definitely installed.

Solved it by ignoring the import recommendation. Instead of

'use strict';

const { initializeApp } = require('firebase-admin/app');
const { getFirestore, Timestamp, GeoPoint } = require('firebase-admin/firestore');

exports.initializeApp = () => initializeApp();
exports.getFirestore = () => getFirestore();
exports.Timestamp = Timestamp;
exports.GeoPoint = GeoPoint;

I am now using what existed before v10:

'use strict';

const firebaseAdmin = require('firebase-admin');

exports.initializeApp = () => firebaseAdmin.initializeApp();
exports.getFirestore = () => firebaseAdmin.firestore();
exports.Timestamp = firebaseAdmin.firestore.Timestamp;
exports.GeoPoint = firebaseAdmin.firestore.GeoPoint;

Code given above worked fine when executed through Node.js 12. Here's the output of the execution with an added console.log statement:

% cat main.js 
'use strict';

const { initializeApp } = require('firebase-admin/app');
const { getFirestore, Timestamp, GeoPoint } = require('firebase-admin/firestore');

exports.initializeApp = () => initializeApp();
exports.getFirestore = () => getFirestore();
exports.Timestamp = Timestamp;
exports.GeoPoint = GeoPoint;

console.log(exports);


% node main.js 
{
  initializeApp: [Function],
  getFirestore: [Function],
  Timestamp: [class Timestamp],
  GeoPoint: [class GeoPoint]
}

Also I can do the following on a Node.js REPL:

% node
Welcome to Node.js v12.22.0.
Type ".help" for more information.
> const { initializeApp } = require('firebase-admin/app')
undefined
> initializeApp
[Function: initializeApp]

May be somebody can share a minimal and complete repro of the issue? Something that we can download and run to repro the problem?

@hiranya911

@hiranya911 I am currently using node v17.0.1. Is it known to not work with this? Is the solution to downgrade to v12 instead?

Edit – I can confirm that downgrading to v12 did solve the issue.

@shalbert94 Importing the top level module and then accessing internal things like you suggested works.
That is exactly the workaround that I proceeded with.

So, either the docs need updating, or the library itself does.

Works fine on Node 17 too:

$ node
Welcome to Node.js v17.0.1.
Type ".help" for more information.
> const { initializeApp }  = require('firebase-admin/app')
undefined
> initializeApp
[Function: initializeApp]

This is most likely a problem specific to your environment/implementation. We will need a complete, minimal repro to know for sure.

As fas as our library is concerned, we correctly declare the new module entry points in our package.json file:

firebase-admin-node/package.json

Lines 106 to 111 in b26501b

    
           "exports": { 
        
             ".": "./lib/index.js", 
        
             "./app": { 
        
               "require": "./lib/app/index.js", 
        
               "import": "./lib/esm/app/index.js" 
        
             },

All Node.js versions 12 and up, should support it.

Edit – I can confirm that downgrading to v12 did solve the issue.

Assuming there are no other libraries, frameworks or custom module loaders in play, more likely explanation is your Node 17 setup was somehow loading an old version of firebase-admin (e.g. v9), that didn't have the new module exports. Changing to Node 12 pulled in the latest version of the library, and picked up the new entry points. Just a guess.

I pushed a copy of my attempt to repro this issue to https://github.com/firebase/firebase-admin-node/tree/hkj-repro-1488/nodetest. Feel free to play with it and see if you can still repro the problem.

I'm also getting this error when using the snippet provided:

import { initializeApp, applicationDefault } from 'firebase-admin/app';

=> Error: Cannot find module 'firebase-admin/app'

Node v14.16.1

Confirming that using import firebaseAdmin from 'firebase-admin' resolves it, however that's a big headache. For now I've given up on this approach and gone back to using import Firestore from '@google-cloud/firestore' (and it looks like firebase-admin just wraps that anyway so no harm I guess?)

@Bandit

@Bandit can you share a complete repro with us? Something similar to the complete example I've shared above in my last comment.

Folks who are seeing this error also please check their library version using one of the following methods:

Using `npm ls`

$ npm ls firebase-admin       
mods@1.0.0 
└── firebase-admin@10.0.0

Directly checking the `package.json` of the library

$ grep "version" node_modules/firebase-admin/package.json
  "version": "10.0.0"

If the version is indeed 10.x or higher, please share a complete repro that we can run.

Confirmed I'm using firebase-admin@10.0.0

I'll see about building a repro when I get some time, but I'm assuming it's related to Vite (using Vite + Sveltekit). Perhaps fixed by this hot-off-the-press PR vitejs/vite#5593? Or maybe it's this bug vitejs/vite#4340? Bit beyond my pay grade

We encountered the issue in Vite during alpha testing. See #1340 (also vitejs/vite#3953). It's a bug in their module resolver. We cannot do much about that on our end, but it sounds like the PR you've linked above is expected to fix it.

Other platforms with known issues include Jest and ESLint (see #1481)

I started to use firebase-admin@^10.0.1 and I had this error when running jest tests. It couldn't map "firebase-admin/app" to "firebase-admin/lib/app" as expected. So I have mapped this manually on jest.config.ts:

import { pathsToModuleNameMapper } from 'ts-jest/utils';
import { compilerOptions } from './tsconfig.json';

...
export default {
 ...
 moduleNameMapper: pathsToModuleNameMapper(
    {
      ...compilerOptions.paths,
      'firebase-admin/*': ['node_modules/firebase-admin/lib/*'],
    },
    {
      prefix: '<rootDir>',
    },
  ),
...
}

That worked for me.

And just to note, my tsconfig.json is like this:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    ...
    "baseUrl": ".",
    "paths": {
      "modules/*": [
        "src/modules/*"
      ],
      "shared/*": [
        "src/shared/*"
      ],
    }
  }
}

Hi,
See that : https://firebase.google.com/docs/admin/migrate-node-v10#es-modules-support

@HelderSi

Similarly to @HelderSi, I had to do a moduleNameMapper config, but I'm using yarn v2 PnP, so my config looks like this:

import { pathsToModuleNameMapper } from "ts-jest/utils";

export default {
  preset: "ts-jest",
  testEnvironment: "node",
  modulePaths: ["<rootDir>/src"],
  moduleNameMapper: pathsToModuleNameMapper({
    "firebase-admin/*": ["firebase-admin/lib/*"],
  }),
};

For some reason npm pulled v9 for me, I manually edited my package.json (remember it's the one in the functions folder):
"firebase-admin": "^10.0.2",
All imports are working correctly now.

backend package json

{
  "name": "back",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "type": "module",
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "bcrypt": "^5.0.1",
    "cookie-parser": "^1.4.5",
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "dotenv": "^10.0.0",
    "express": "^4.17.1",
    "express-validator": "^6.13.0",
    "firebase-admin": "^10.0.2",
    "jsonwebtoken": "^8.5.1",
    "mongodb": "^4.1.3",
    "mongoose": "^6.0.12",
    "multer": "^1.4.4",
    "nodemon": "^2.0.14",
    "socket.io": "^4.4.0"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "back": "nodemon index.js",
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC"
}

node version
v16.13.1

firebase library package.json
"version": "10.0.2",

Deleting node_modules, package-lock.json, and running npm cache clean --force fixed this for me on Node 16.14.

For anyone else looking for things to try, learn from my mistake. When upgrading to firebase-admin@10, I accidentally made it a dev dependency, thus triggering this error.

I did have the same issue with not finding the module 'firebase-admin/app'. Ended up accessing firebase products with suggestions from others at the top of this thread. Tried it again the default way from google docs , regardless of the error 'module not found' everything still works fine and able to use firebase product (firestore). You can IGNORE the error and run your code. I am node version 12

@Benjamin-Lee

@Benjamin-Lee that fixed my issue. Thanks for share your error resolution.

This issue is still not solved. Either I use node version 14.6.0 (npm v7.8.0) or version 18.1.0 (npm v8.8.0).

I'm using node v18.12.0 with yarn and vscode. Runing yarn cache clean --all then reinstalling yarn install, and restarting vsode fixed this for me.

Still experiencing this with firebase-admin@11.5.0 and node@18.15.0.

Clearing the cache and re-installing did not help.

I have tried the general import:

import * as firebaseAdmin from 'firebase-admin';

...but I can't get at the getAuth function.

const auth = firebaseAdmin.auth.getAuth(app);

Gives:

Property 'getAuth' does not exist on type '(app?: App | undefined) => Auth'.

@jasonburrows

@jasonburrows If you are using the namespaces you should use firebaseAdmin.auth(app).

I ran a few tests and it seems like import * as firebaseAdmin from 'firebase-admin' imports all the named exports... so you specifically need to access the default export. I am unsure why this happens or what the correct fix for this. I will need to investigate the issue further.

import * as firebaseAdmin from 'firebase-admin';

const auth = firebaseAdmin.default.auth();

[Module: null prototype] {
  default: <ref *1> FirebaseNamespace {
    __esModule: true,
    credential: {
      cert: [Function: cert],
      refreshToken: [Function: refreshToken],
      applicationDefault: [Function: applicationDefault]
    },
    SDK_VERSION: '11.5.0',
    Promise: [Function: Promise],
    INTERNAL: FirebaseNamespaceInternals { appStore: [AppStore] },
    default: [Circular *1]
  }
}

In the meantime, I would also suggest using the new modular syntax:

import { initializeApp, App } from 'firebase-admin/app';
import { getAuth, UserRecord } from 'firebase-admin/auth';

const app: App = initializeApp();

const token: string = await getAuth().createCustomToken('alice');

https://firebase.google.com/docs/admin/migrate-node-v10

This issue seems to be still ongoing, I get this when trying to deploy:

✔  functions: Finished running predeploy script.
i  functions: preparing codebase default for deployment
i  functions: ensuring required API cloudfunctions.googleapis.com is enabled...
i  functions: ensuring required API cloudbuild.googleapis.com is enabled...
i  artifactregistry: ensuring required API artifactregistry.googleapis.com is enabled...
i  functions: Loading and analyzing source code for codebase default to determine what to deploy
Serving at port 8542

Error: Cannot find module 'firebase-admin/app'
Require stack:
- /myProject/functions/lib/functions/src/index.js
- /myProject/functions/node_modules/firebase-functions/lib/runtime/loader.js
- /myProject/functions/node_modules/firebase-functions/lib/bin/firebase-functions.js
    at Function._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1401:15)
    at defaultResolveImpl (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1057:19)
    at resolveForCJSWithHooks (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1062:22)
    at Function._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1211:37)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:235:24)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1487:12)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:135:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/myProject/functions/lib/functions/src/index.js:7:15)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1730:14) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    '/myProject/functions/lib/functions/src/index.js',
    '/myProject/functions/node_modules/firebase-functions/lib/runtime/loader.js',
    '/myProject/functions/node_modules/firebase-functions/lib/bin/firebase-functions.js'
  ]
}

I do have latest version of firebase-admin installed:

"dependencies": {
   "firebase-admin": "^13.4.0",
   "firebase-functions": "^6.4.0"
 },

Initialization:

import { setGlobalOptions } from 'firebase-functions';
import { initializeApp } from 'firebase-admin/app';

setGlobalOptions({ maxInstances: 10, region: 'europe-west1' });
initializeApp();

I tried removing package-lock.json and node_modules and reinstall, but it didn't help.

OK, I think I managed to fix this on my own laptop.

Check your whole path under where you keep your code for any special letters or symbols.

Especially umlaut letters like ö, ä, ü.

I had an ö-letter in my path on a top level so I changed the name to something else and now the deploy works.

Might not be the actual reason but I was getting the mentioned error and after changing the project-path, it no longer gives error.

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Cannot find module 'firebase-admin/app' #1488

Using `npm ls`

Directly checking the `package.json` of the library

14 remaining items

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

	"exports": {
	".": "./lib/index.js",
	"./app": {
	"require": "./lib/app/index.js",
	"import": "./lib/esm/app/index.js"
	},

Cannot find module 'firebase-admin/app' #1488

Description

Activity

google-oss-bot commented on Nov 7, 2021

shalomhalbert commented on Nov 7, 2021

shalomhalbert commented on Nov 7, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 8, 2021

sankalpsans commented on Nov 9, 2021

sankalpsans commented on Nov 9, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 9, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 9, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 9, 2021

Bandit commented on Nov 9, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 9, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 9, 2021

Using npm ls

Directly checking the package.json of the library

Bandit commented on Nov 9, 2021

hiranya911 commented on Nov 9, 2021

14 remaining items

HelderSi commented on Jan 9, 2022

alxcholley commented on Jan 24, 2022

fflores97 commented on Jan 26, 2022

Enragedsaturday commented on Feb 2, 2022

artstylee commented on Feb 2, 2022

mattisx commented on Feb 18, 2022

Benjamin-Lee commented on Mar 9, 2022

Muhkol commented on Mar 12, 2022

lneninger commented on Mar 25, 2022

fbukevin commented on Jun 14, 2022

March-mitsuki commented on Dec 7, 2022

jasonburrows commented on Mar 9, 2023

lahirumaramba commented on Mar 9, 2023

KariNarhi28 commented on Aug 6, 2025

KariNarhi28 commented on Aug 7, 2025

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions

Using `npm ls`

Directly checking the `package.json` of the library