Openai/696bccda-36cc-8000-b805-9be682a21332

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gpt-5-2-thinking

User: Help this person out?

Help this person out?

I recently started working on my first vibe doing project using Cursor, I've poured about 4 days into this and spent a good bit of money on LLM access.

Yesterday I somehow broke the project whilst committing more changes to git, i can no longer run the app and I lost my train-of-thought trying to fix it and my agent kind of ranaway with destroying the project. I'm certain this version is fucked.

I'm trying to restore to an earlier version that I saved on git hub, but this is my first time restoring a project from GIT and I cant get it working again.

I downloaded the project from git hub and replaced the folder locally, but now when i try and start the app with 'npm run dev' it tells me next is not a recognized internal or external command.

I'm sure/hoping this will be an easy fix and I've just done something incorrectly.

If anyone can help guide me to get my project back up and running I will be eternally grateful.

Assistant: Yep — and it probably is an easy fix.

Yep — and it probably is an easy fix.

That error:

next is not recognized as an internal or external command

means your local project doesn’t have Next.js installed / available, or you’re running the command from the wrong folder, or node_modules wasn’t installed after you replaced the folder.

Here’s the clean, reliable way to get them back to a working state.

1) Make sure they’re in the right folder

In a terminal inside the project root (the folder that contains package.json), run:

• Windows (PowerShell/cmd): ``bash dir

  - Mac/Linux:

  bash ls

  They should see a package.json. If not, they’re one directory too high/low.
  
  ==== 2) Reinstall dependencies (this is the most likely fix) ====
  
  When you download/replace a repo folder, it usually does not include </code>node_modules/<code>, and without it Next won’t exist locally.
  
  Run:

  bash

npm install

Then try again:

bash

npm run dev

If that works, done.

==== 3) If it still says “next not recognized”, verify Next exists in dependencies ====

Open package.json and look for something like:

json

"dependencies": {

 "next": "...",
 "react": "...",
 "react-dom": "..."

}

If </code>next<code> is missing, then the repo/version they restored to doesn’t include it (or they restored the wrong folder).

===== Fix: install Next (and React if needed) =====

Run:

bash

npm i next react react-dom

Then:

bash

npm run dev

==== 4) Make sure npm run dev is actually calling Next correctly ====

In package.json, confirm scripts look like:

json

"scripts": {

 "dev": "next dev",
 "build": "next build",
 "start": "next start"

}

If dev points to something else, that could be the issue.

==== 5) If they used Cursor / agents, also check Node version ====

Next projects can fail if Node is too old.

Check:

bash

node -v npm -v

If Node is old (common issue on Windows), install a current LTS (Node 18 or 20+ usually).

==== 6) The right way to “restore an earlier GitHub version” (so it doesn’t happen again) ====

Instead of downloading a zip and replacing folders, do this:

===== If they already have the repo locally =====

bash

git log --oneline

Find the commit hash of the last good version, then:

bash

git checkout <commit-hash> npm install npm run dev

(That puts them in a “detached HEAD” state, but it’s perfect for recovery/testing.)

If they want to restore and continue work from there:

bash

git checkout -b restore-working

===== If they don’t have it locally =====

Clone fresh:

bash

git clone <repo-url> cd <repo-folder> npm install npm run dev

==== 7) Quick diagnostic checklist (what I’d ask them to paste) ====

If they’re still stuck, have them paste:
# The </code>package.json<code> scripts section
# The output of:

bash

where next

(Windows) or

bash

which next

(Mac/Linux)
# The output of:

bash

npm run dev

`

(full error)

Likeliest outcome

They replaced the folder and didn’t run npm install`, so Next isn’t present locally → next not recognized.

If you want, paste their package.json scripts + the exact error text and I’ll tell you exactly which branch of the fix applies.