Aider error
Aider: aider: The term 'aider' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet...
aider: The term 'aider' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or executable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.Status: WorkaroundLast verified 3 documented fixes2 sources
What it means
The aider command is not on your shell PATH, so the shell cannot find it.
Causes
- Permissions or security settings in your OS; this often happens to Windows users (official docs).
How to fix it
- Fix 1.
Run aider through Python, which the docs call the most fail safe way.
Terminalpython -m aider - Fix 2.
Install aider with aider-install, uv or pipx.
Terminalpython -m pip install uv # If you need to install uv uv tool install --force --python python3.12 --with pip aider-chat@latest - Fix 3.
Or use the official Windows one-liner.
Snippetpowershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://aider.chat/install.ps1 | iex"
More Aider errors
All 17 Aider errorsThe LLM did not conform to the edit format.Status: WorkaroundSearchReplaceNoExactMatch: This SEARCH block failed to exactly match lines in {path}Status: WorkaroundModel gpt-3.5-turbo has hit a token limit!Status: WorkaroundModel foobar: Unknown context window size and costs, using sane defaults.Status: By designModel azure/gpt-4-turbo: Missing these environment variables:Status: By designaider-chat 0.23.0 requires somepackage==X.Y.Z, but you have somepackage U.W.V which is incompatible.Status: WorkaroundThe API provider is not able to authenticate you. Check your API key.Status: By designThe API provider has rate limited you. Try again later or check your quotas.Status: By design
Related reading
- Aider vs Claude Code in 2026: Git-First Open Source vs Subagent RuntimeAider vs Claude Code: git-first, model-agnostic Aider against the Claude Code runtime of subagents and hooks. Compare architecture, cost, governance and fit.
- Aider vs Claude Code: Open Source vs Commercial AI Coding CLIAider is open source and works with any model. Claude Code is Anthropic's commercial agent. Here is how they compare for TypeScript.
FAQ
What does "aider: The term 'aider' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet..." mean in Aider?
The aider command is not on your shell PATH, so the shell cannot find it.
How do I fix "aider: The term 'aider' is not recognized as a name of a cmdlet..."?
There are 3 documented fixes. Start with the first: Run aider through Python, which the docs call the most fail safe way.
Is this Aider error fixed?
Status: Workaround. No release removes the cause. The documented fixes work around it. Affected versions: All versions; mainly Windows.
Sources
Last verified against 2 sources: official docs, maintainer replies and release notes.
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