`cypress install` silently exits 0 mid-extraction on Node.js 24.16.0

[robjackstewart]

Workaround: Pin Node.js to 24.15.0 or 26.0.0 until a fix is available.

Current behavior

Running cypress install (or npx cypress install) on Node.js 24.16.0 causes the binary extraction to begin but never complete. The behaviour differs by environment:

• CI environments (Azure Pipelines tested): the process exits silently with code 0 part-way through extraction. The Cypress binary is left in a partial/missing state and cypress verify fails immediately after.
• Interactive terminals: the command appears to hang indefinitely at Unzipping Cypress with no further output and no error.

In both cases there is no error message and no non-zero exit code, making the issue extremely difficult to diagnose. Because the exit code is 0, in CI the failure is invisible until cypress verify or the first test run.

Desired behavior

cypress install should complete extraction and print the full success output regardless of Node.js minor version, e.g.:

√  Unzipped Cypress       
>  Finishing Installation 
√  Finished Installation   <cache path>

You can now open Cypress by running: npx cypress open

Test code to reproduce

# Install Node.js 24.16.0 (e.g. via nvm)
nvm install 24.16.0
nvm use 24.16.0

# Install Cypress (skip binary download during npm install)
CYPRESS_INSTALL_BINARY=0 npm install cypress

# Attempt to install the Cypress binary
npx cypress install
# → interactive: hangs at "Unzipping Cypress"
# → CI: exits 0 with no further output

# Confirm binary is missing or incomplete
npx cypress verify
# → fails: binary not found / not executable

Downgrading to Node.js 24.15.0 and repeating the same steps completes successfully.

Cypress Version

15.15.0

Debug Logs

**Node.js 24.16.0** (broken) — extraction starts then process exits with no further output:


cypress:cli:install extracting cypress binary  +0ms
cypress:cli:install unzipping /tmp/cypress.zip to /home/runner/.cache/Cypress/15.x.x  +1ms
# ...process exits 0 here, no further logs


**Node.js 24.15.0** (working) — full completion output:


√  Unzipped Cypress       
2026-05-22T11:28:38.465Z cypress:cli:unzip unzip completed { yauzlMs: 3, unzipMs: 83269 }
>  Finishing Installation 
2026-05-22T11:28:38.466Z cypress:cli:install removing zip file C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Temp\cypress-8996.zip
2026-05-22T11:28:38.491Z cypress:cli:install finished installation in C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\cypress\15.15.0
√  Finished Installation   C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\cypress\15.15.0

You can now open Cypress by running: npx cypress open

Other

This is almost certainly a Node.js issue rather than a Cypress one, and is tracked upstream at nodejs/node#63487, which describes a regression in Node.js 24.16.0 that breaks extract-zip's top-level await handling — exactly the mechanism Cypress uses to extract its binary.

Raising it here because the Node.js issue thread notes that bumping to a newer version of Playwright resolved the problem for some users, suggesting that tools which have already updated their extraction dependency or approach are unaffected. It is worth considering whether Cypress could do the same — either by pinning/updating extract-zip or switching to an alternative extraction approach.

[AtofStryker]

Hi @robjackstewart . Thank you for opening an issue. The team noticed this issue late last evening and is working on a fix in #33887

[AtofStryker]

We've confirmed two related scenarios:

1. Windows (always affected)
Windows has no native unzip tool, so Cypress always falls back to extract-zip. This means every Windows user on Node.js 24.16.0 hits this — the binary zip downloads but Cypress.exe is never written to the cache, resulting in Cypress executable not found.

2. Linux without unzip (e.g. minimal CI images)
Linux normally uses the unzip binary. When it isn't available (as in our kitchensink test image), Cypress falls back to extract-zip and hits the same failure:

The cypress npm package is installed, but the Cypress binary is missing.
We expected the binary to be installed here: /root/.cache/Cypress/beta-<version>/Cypress/Cypress

This also surfaces when installing via CYPRESS_INSTALL_BINARY=~/cypress/cypress.zip.

Fix in progress
We've traced the root cause to fd-slicer, an unmaintained transitive dependency of extract-zip. A fix is being reviewed in PR #33887, which replaces extract-zip with yauzl for binary extraction across all platforms (while leaving native ditto/unzip paths unchanged on macOS/Linux).

Workaround until the fix ships: downgrade to Node.js 24.15.0, or run npx cypress install on a platform where native unzip is available.

[MikeMcC399]

This issue is also reproducible on Windows 11 25H2 with Node.js 26.1.0 & 26.2.0.

Changes in Node.js 26.1.0 will have been backported to Node.js 24.16.0.

The following shows the hanging unzip process:

cd $(mktemp -d)
CYPRESS_INSTALL_BINARY=0 npm install cypress --save-dev
DEBUG=cypress:cli* npx cypress install --force

$ CYPRESS_INSTALL_BINARY=0 npm install cypress --save-dev
DEBUG=cypress:cli* npx cypress install --force

up to date, audited 176 packages in 1s

53 packages are looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details

found 0 vulnerabilities
  cypress:cli:cli cli starts with arguments ["C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe","C:\\Users\\mikem\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\tmp.PTgKZYU9XX\\node_modules\\cypress\\bin\\cypress","install","--force"] +0ms
  cypress:cli NODE_OPTIONS is not set +0ms
  cypress:cli:cli program parsing arguments +1ms
  cypress:cli parsed cli options { force: true } +2ms
  cypress:cli:install installing with options {"force":true} +0ms
  cypress:cli detecting arch { osPlatform: 'win32', osArch: 'x64' } +4ms
  cypress:cli:install version in package.json is 15.15.0, version to install is 15.15.0 +5ms
  cypress:cli Reading binary package.json from: C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Cypress\Cache\15.15.0\Cypress\resources\app\package.json +0ms

Cypress 15.15.0 is installed in C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Cypress\Cache\15.15.0

  cypress:cli:install performing force install over existing binary +1s
  cypress:cli:install checking local file C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\15.15.0 cwd C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Temp\tmp.PTgKZYU9XX +0ms
  cypress:cli:install preparing to download and unzip version  15.15.0 to path C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Cypress\Cache\15.15.0 +1ms
  cypress:cli:install Cypress already installed at C:\Users\mikem\AppData\Local\Cypress\Cache\15.15.0 +0ms
  cypress:cli:install but the installation was forced +0ms
Installing Cypress (version: 15.15.0)

✔  Downloaded Cypress
⠋  Unzipping Cypress        0% 0s
◼  Finishing Installation

[cypress-bot]

Released in 15.16.0.

This comment thread has been locked. If you are still experiencing this issue after upgrading to
Cypress v15.16.0, please open a new issue.