[Solution] Fix for "local changes in app/yarn.lock" update loop with lazy.nvim

[vincenzosacco]

[My "Guide"] Fix for "local changes in app/yarn.lock" loop with lazy.nvim, on WSL2 and build with npm

The Problem

If you use lazy.nvim to manage markdown-preview.nvim, you may encounter an update loop that eventually breaks the plugin installation.

My setup when this problem happened

• WSL2 ( i don't think it matters)
• plugins/init.lua :

   "iamcco/markdown-preview.nvim",
   cmd = { "MarkdownPreviewToggle", "MarkdownPreview", "MarkdownPreviewStop" },
   ft = { "markdown" },
   build = "cd app && npm install",
   init = function()
     vim.g.mkdp_filetypes = { "markdown" }
   end,
 },

• npm 11.5.1

The Problem

The error starts when Lazy install the plugin but refusing to update, sync, ecc... due to local changes:

You have local changes in .../markdown-preview.nvim:
  * app/yarn.lock
Please remove them to update.

If you attempt to fix this by deleting the folder or uninstalling via Lazy, you might end up with a persistent filesystem error that prevents re-installation:
.../lazy/manage/task/fs.lua:9: .../markdown-preview.nvim should be a directory!

Solution which worked for me :

Step 1

# 1. Force remove the plugin (handles both file or folder corruption)
rm -rf ~/.local/share/nvim/lazy/markdown-preview.nvim

# 2. Remove the lazy state file (forces Lazy to re-scan the directory)
rm -f ~/.local/state/nvim/lazy/state.json

# 3. (Optional) Remove the lockfile to ensure a clean pull
rm -f ~/.config/nvim/lazy-lock.json

Step 2

add && git restore . at the end of the cmd:

build = "cd app && npm install && git restore ."