# "Error: Cannot find module 'node-fetch'" when deploying function

**URL:** <https://answers.netlify.com/t/error-cannot-find-module-node-fetch-when-deploying-function/7254>\
**Category:** Support\
**Tags:** lambda-functions\
**Created:** [January 11, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/error-cannot-find-module-node-fetch-when-deploying-function/7254 "2020-01-11T05:20:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![r-bt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/netlify/user_avatar/answers.netlify.com/r-bt/32/22355_2.png) [@r-bt](https://answers.netlify.com/u/r-bt)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://answers.netlify.com/t/error-cannot-find-module-node-fetch-when-deploying-function/7254/10 "2021-02-20T14:58:28Z")

</div>

I was having this problem also and tried the steps from here, [Netlify Functions Can't find module](https://answers.netlify.com/t/netlify-functions-cant-find-module/27634) and [Cannot use node-fetch in lambda function](https://answers.netlify.com/t/cannot-use-node-fetch-in-lambda-function/18439) :

- Installing deps in project root
- Installing deps in functions specific folder e.g. having `functions/testfunc/package.json` and changing `command` to install these and also
- Changing `const fetch = require('node-fetch')` to:
  - `const fetch = require('node-fetch').default`
  - `const fetch = request('node-fetch').default`

- Adding `node-fetch` peer dependency `encoding`

However, none of these things worked. I then tried seeing if copying the **Fetch** example from [playgrounds](https://functions.netlify.com/playground/) would work and it did. The issue was that I had a variable in my function `static`

```auto
const static = ['/blog', '/about', '/'];

```

For some reason having a variable called static causes

```auto
Error: Cannot find module 'node-fetch'

```

This can be replicated by:

1. Creating a new function, `test.js` with the code from the [Fetch](https://functions.netlify.com/playground/#fetch) example in Functions playground
2. Installing `node-fetch` in the projects root dependecies
3. Deploying to netlify with automatic git commit deploys
4. Going to `/.netlify/functions/test` and seeing the joke
5. Change the function to:

```auto
const fetch = require("node-fetch");

const API_ENDPOINT = "https://icanhazdadjoke.com/";

exports.handler = async (event, context) => {
  const static = ["hello", "goodbye"];

  return fetch(API_ENDPOINT, { headers: { Accept: "application/json" } })
    .then((response) => response.json())
    .then((data) => ({
      statusCode: 200,
      body: data.joke,
    }))
    .catch((error) => ({ statusCode: 422, body: String(error) }));
};

```

1. Commit and deploy
2. Go back to `/.netlify/functions/test` and you’ll see the error

@perry is this the expected behaviour? No other variable causes this problem and the function works fine in dev (`netlify dev` and going to `localhost`)

---

_[View the full topic](https://answers.netlify.com/t/error-cannot-find-module-node-fetch-when-deploying-function/7254)._