Describe the bug

Description

When running shadcn init with the Vite template using pnpm dlx, the initialization process fails during the internal pnpm install step. This is because esbuild requires a build script to run, but pnpm blocks it by default ([ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS]), causing the command to exit with code 1.

The real catch-22 here is that shadcn init is supposed to create the project directory from scratch. Even if I wanted to place a pnpm-workspace.yaml to allow the build, the directory doesn't even exist yet, leaving me completely stuck without a pre-configured workaround.

Workaround / Current Solution

Currently, the only way to bypass this is to explicitly allow esbuild via pnpm-workspace.yaml before running the shadcn init command:

cat <<'EOF' > pnpm-workspace.yaml
allowBuilds:
  esbuild: true
EOF

pnpm dlx shadcn@latest init --preset b5K1Dydce --template vite --name my-app

While creating pnpm-workspace.yaml beforehand technically bypasses the exit error, it introduces an even worse architectural mess:

1. Nested Directories: shadcn init ends up creating the new project inside the folder where the workspace file was placed, resulting in an annoying double-layered folder structure (e.g., my-app/my-app/).
2. Root Pollution: Because pnpm detects the pre-created pnpm-workspace.yaml, it treats that outer directory as the workspace root. As a result, it generates a massive node_modules and pnpm-lock.yaml at the upper level instead of inside the actual project.

Every single time I run this, I am forced to manually move files around, delete ghost node_modules, and clean up the directory structure just to get a clean start. It completely ruins the seamless "out-of-the-box" experience that shadcn is known for.

Affected component/components

shadcn CLI (init command)

How to reproduce

pnpm dlx shadcn@latest init --preset b5K1Dydce --template vite --name my-app

Codesandbox/StackBlitz link

No response

Logs

[~/tmp] % pnpm dlx shadcn@latest init --preset b5K1Dydce --template vite --name my-app
✖ Something went wrong creating a new Vite project.

Something went wrong. Please check the error below for more details.
If the problem persists, please open an issue on GitHub.

Command failed with exit code 1: pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile

Progress: resolved 1, reused 0, downloaded 0, added 0
Progress: resolved 204, reused 149, downloaded 0, added 0
Packages: +195
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Progress: resolved 265, reused 195, downloaded 0, added 195, done

dependencies:
+ @tailwindcss/vite 4.3.0
+ react 19.2.6
+ react-dom 19.2.6
+ tailwindcss 4.3.0

devDependencies:
+ @eslint/js 9.39.4 (10.0.1 is available)
+ @types/node 24.12.4 (25.8.0 is available)
+ @types/react 19.2.14
+ @types/react-dom 19.2.3
+ @vitejs/plugin-react 5.2.0 (6.0.2 is available)
+ eslint 9.39.4 (10.3.0 is available)
+ eslint-plugin-react-hooks 7.1.1
+ eslint-plugin-react-refresh 0.5.2
+ globals 16.5.0 (17.6.0 is available)
+ prettier 3.8.3
+ prettier-plugin-tailwindcss 0.7.4 (0.8.0 is available)
+ typescript 5.9.3 (6.0.3 is available)
+ typescript-eslint 8.59.3
+ vite 7.3.3 (8.0.13 is available)

[ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS] Ignored build scripts: [email protected]

Run "pnpm approve-builds" to pick which dependencies should be allowed to run scripts.

You can also try a previous version to see if that works:
pnpm dlx [email protected] init --preset b5K1Dydce --template vite --name my-app

System Info

pnpm -v
11.1.1

Before submitting

• I've made research efforts and searched the documentation
• I've searched for existing issues