"npx create-react-app my-app" stopped working in 4.0.3

Describe the bug

/tmp
▶ npx create-react-app my-app

You are running `create-react-app` 4.0.1, which is behind the latest release (4.0.3).

We no longer support global installation of Create React App.

Please remove any global installs with one of the following commands:
- npm uninstall -g create-react-app
- yarn global remove create-react-app

The latest instructions for creating a new app can be found here:
https://create-react-app.dev/docs/getting-started/

npm ERR! code 1
npm ERR! path /private/tmp
npm ERR! command failed
npm ERR! command sh -c create-react-app my-app

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /Users/peterbe/.npm/_logs/2021-02-23T16_06_05_071Z-debug.log

/tmp
▶ npx --version
7.5.6

If create-react-app is not meant to work with npx, then https://create-react-app.dev/docs/getting-started/ is wrong.

Did you try recovering your dependencies?

not applicable

Which terms did you search for in User Guide?

• npx
• getting started

Environment

OSX Big Sur npm 7.5.6 node v15.2.1

Steps to reproduce

cd /tmp/
npx create-react-app my-app

Expected behavior

That it should create a directory called my-app.

Actual behavior

See error above.

Reproducible demo

Not applicable.

[BenJenkinson]

I just encountered this problem as well.

As a possible workaround, this worked for me:

npx create-react-app@latest my-app

[BenJenkinson]

This same kind of issue has been reported several times now:

• #10518 “start fails right after create-react-app”
• #10495 “Not working after update”
• #10132 “npx create-react-app is not working”
• #10127 “Issues with running npx create-react-app on node 15.2.1”
• #10133 “npx create-react-app my-app is isn’t installing the packages and i try uninstalling npm using -g but still”
• #9910 “error running npx create-react-app@next”

These were all ultimately resolved with either:

npx create-react-app@latest my-app

Or, in one case (https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/10495#issuecomment-772893155), the exact opposite of what the error message tells you to do:

npm install -g create-react-app

npx create-react-app my-app

I suspect this is because the warning against “global” installs is really just checking for “is the version being run the latest version” which would be OK immediately after installing it globally, but then wouldn’t be OK two weeks & two new versions later.

There are also a lot of solutions that suggest completely uninstalling and reinstalling node & npm, which I think is mostly a really dramatic way to ensure you have cleared npm’s (and presumably npx’s) cache of installed packages.