Azure Cloud Shell issue when using CLI for M365 - Workaround

Azure Cloud Shell is one of the cool Azure features which will help you to execute Bash / PowerShell script from the browser. The best part is that Azure Cloud shell even supports CLI for Microsoft 365 without you need to explicitly install anything in the shell.

When you try to execute CLI for Microsoft 365 after creating a new Cloud Shell, we will get an error which is something like below,

/usr/local/lib/node_modules/@pnp/cli-microsoft365/node_modules/update-notifier/index.js:58
                        } catch {
                                ^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token {
    at createScript (vm.js:80:10)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:139:10)
    at Module._compile (module.js:617:28)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:664:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:566:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:506:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:498:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:597:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/@pnp/cli-microsoft365/dist/index.js:17:28)

It was identified by the expert team that this was because of the case where Azure Cloud Shell uses node version 8.16 as the base image. But CLI for Microsoft 365 uses later Node version which is causing the issue in Azure Cloud Shell. Due to this Node version mismatch, CLI for Microsoft 365 is unable to work as expected. The conversation related to this already initiated as an Issue in GitHub.

But till the time upgrade is complete, we have a workaround which could be implemented so that you can execute CLI for Microsoft 365 in Azure Cloud Shell seamlessly.

Workaround

Though the team is actively working on updating the node version, we will not be able to use Azure shell for CLI for M365 till the upgrade is complete. We do have a workaround for the same using the node on top of Node Version Manager aka NVM. You can follow the below steps if you want to know the complete steps

1. Install NVM in the cloud shell
2. Install the Node version required for CLI for Microsoft 365. As of writing this blog, CLI for Microsoft 365 supports any node version>14.0.0
   1. nvm install 14.0.0
   2. Made sure you are making this version as default
3. After that install CLI for Microsoft 365 in the node version which you have set as the default
4. Once the CLI package is installed, you can see that CLI works perfectly well in Azure Shell

This is just a workaround till we have a permanent solution from Azure Shell team for the same.