Quire WriterTypst · LaTeX · Quarto · Markdown

Troubleshooting, step by step.

Most problems come from a tool that Quire uses and that is missing or too old. Start with Check Setup in the app. Then find the message you see below.

Start with Check Setup

In Quire, choose Check Setup… in the Quire menu. It shows whether your agent runs, what the agent needs to start, and the tool each preview and export uses. When something is missing, it shows the command that installs it. When your agent cannot start, the chat says why and offers Try Again and Check Setup. On Linux there is no menu bar, so open Check Setup from there.

The full log is in ~/Library/Logs/com.andesprit.quire/agent.log on a Mac. On Linux, Check Setup shows where it is.

The commands on this page use Homebrew. On Linux, use Homebrew or your system's package manager.

The agent stops with "No matching version found"

You see: npm error code ETARGET and npm error notarget No matching version found for @agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp@…

npm keeps a saved list of each agent's versions. To start fast, Quire asks npm to use what it saved. If npm saved that list before the version Quire asks for came out, npm says that version does not exist. Quire versions after 0.2.2 then ask npm for a fresh list and start the agent again by themselves. On Quire 0.2.2 or older, clear npm's saved lists once, then start the agent again:

npm cache clean --force

"Could not start npx"

You see: Could not start npx: No such file or directory

Most agents start with npx, which comes with Node.js. Either Node.js is not installed, or Quire cannot find it. Quire looks for programs where a new Terminal window finds them.

brew install node

If you use nvm, fnm or another version manager, open a new Terminal window and check that node --version works there. With nvm, choose a default version with nvm alias default 22. Then quit Quire and open it again.

Node.js is too old

You see: npm warn EBADENGINE Unsupported engine, or the agent stops right after it starts.

Each agent needs a minimum Node.js version. Claude Agent needs Node.js 22 or newer. Check Setup warns when yours is older than 22.

brew upgrade node

"Could not start uvx"

Some agents come from PyPI and start with uvx, which comes with uv.

brew install uv

npm says ENOENT for a file in _npx

You see: npm error enoent Could not read package.json with a path that has /_npx/ in it.

The first start of an agent downloads it. If that download stopped half way, for example because Quire was closed during it, npm keeps a broken copy. Quire versions after 0.2.2 remove that copy and download the agent again by themselves, and the chat says so. They also stop npm when Quire closes, so the copy is not left locked. On Quire 0.2.2 or older, remove the agents npm downloaded. The next start downloads the agent again.

rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx

The agent says you are not logged in

The agent runs with your own login, the same one it uses in a terminal. Open Terminal, start the agent's own program and log in there. For example: claude for Claude Code, codex login for Codex, or gemini for Gemini CLI. Then choose Try Again in the chat or in Check Setup.

"… stopped right after it started"

The agent quit in its first 30 seconds. The chat and Check Setup show the last lines it printed, and the log has the rest. The messages above cover the usual reasons. If yours is not here, open an issue on GitHub with those lines.

A preview or an export says a tool is missing

  • Live preview needs tinymist: this happens only in a build from source. The Mac app carries its own tinymist. Install it with brew install tinymist.
  • LaTeX preview needs TeX: install MacTeX, or the smaller Tectonic with brew install tectonic.
  • Quarto preview needs Quarto or PDF from Markdown needs Quarto: install Quarto from quarto.org, or with brew install --cask quarto.
  • Export to Word and other formats needs Pandoc: install it with brew install pandoc. Quarto carries its own Pandoc, so Quarto works too.