npm – "Can't find Python executable "python", you can set the PYTHON env variable."

You are running the Command Prompt as an admin. You have only defined PYTHON for your user. You need to define it in the bottom “System variables” section.

Also, you should only point the variable to the folder, not directly to the executable.

https://github.com/nodejs/node-gyp#on-windows

https://github.com/Microsoft/nodejs-guidelines/blob/master/windows-environment.md#environment-setup-and-configuration

try

npm config set python D:LibraryPythonPython27python.exe

I installed python2.7 to solve this issue.

Try:

Install all the required tools and configurations using Microsoft’s windows-build-tools by running npm install -g windows-build-tools from an elevated PowerShell (run as Administrator).

https://github.com/Microsoft/nodejs-guidelines/blob/master/windows-environment.md#environment-setup-and-configuration

The easiest way is to let NPM do everything for you,

npm --add-python-to-path='true' --debug install --global windows-build-tools

One of the following solutions will work for you:

1. npm config set python c:Python27python.exe or set PYTHON=D:PythonbinPython.exe
2. npm config set python D:LibraryPythonPython27python.exe
3. Let npm configure everything for you (takes forever to complete) npm --add-python-to-path='true' --debug install --global windows-build-tools (Must be executed via “Run As Administrator” PowerShell)

If not… Try to install the required package on your own (I did so, and it was node-sass, after installing it manually, the whole npm install was successfully completed

Just run below command with admin access

npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

I have recently encountered this issue in a dockerfile using node:16-alpine as base image. I have added following run command to fix the issue:

FROM node:alpine as build-stage
RUN apk add --no-cache python3 py3-pip make g++

Here, both tags node:alpine & node:16-alpine are same.

My Problem was the usage of Node v16.

I went back to Node v12 (v14 is probably fine as well) and it worked.

Run : npm –vs2015 install –global windows-build-tools

npm config set python D:LibraryPythonPython27python.exe

This kind off worked for me from Tom Gao’s answer

Make sure to change in npmrc file as it doesnt automatically takes for the path
and do add Python in env var also as mentioned in the answers.

use node version which mentioned in package.json.

using nvm (node version manager) you can switch between respective node version mentions in package.json

Had this issue on node:18 alpine docker image on Apple Silicon where only python3 is available but at least some versions of node-gyp don’t support pyhton3 yet. So I had to use an alpine version that still had python2:

FROM node:18.8.0-alpine3.15

WORKDIR /app

RUN apk --no-cache add python2 make g++

COPY package.json .
COPY yarn.lock .
RUN yarn

COPY . .

delete node_modules 
delete packagelock.json and yarn.lock(if have)
npm cache clean --force
npm install

as mentionned by jvecsei

For me adding D:SoftwaresPython2.7Scripts instead of D:SoftwaresPython2.7 to PATH worked.

MAC: In my case, I just run the below command and the error resolved:

npm config set python python3