Thank you for following up on this.
Let me know if you need me to retry the install with npm and yarn.

@christian-bromann I resolved all feedback and could remove a bit more code. We do not need to create a package.json anymore as this is done by the @wdio/cli package already :)

@darkartswizard the issue that it will sometimes use yarn is still an issue that I will tackle separately but any other issues should be resolved with this PR!

I just implemented a new feature where it will use the @wdio/cli package if it is installed globally.

The logic is now as follows:

1. look for @wdio/cli in the current project and use it if found
2. if @wdio/cli is not installed in the project, check if the package is installed globally and use it if found
3. if 1 and 2 failed, installed the @wdio/cli package in the current directory

I'm very very happy with this progress ^^

Thank you for the swift feedback, I think we are good to go 👍

I tested fresh installs using two approaches and run with both yarn and npm

Video test of both
npm init wdio@latest .
and
npm init wdio .
with yarn and npm are here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGVeWi8DU6Q

Findings:

1) New: Regardless if I use
npm init wdio@latest .
or
npm init wdio .

I don't see the WebdriverIO version displayed at install anymore.

Had to look at the package.json to see
"devDependencies": {
"@wdio/cli": "^8.24.13",
"@wdio/local-runner": "^8.24.12",
"@wdio/mocha-framework": "^8.24.12",
"@wdio/spec-reporter": "^8.24.12"

2) When I install with
npm init wdio@latest .
in \child1 and
its parent directory then
yarn wdio
runs as expected

installing in \child2 and \child3
also completes successfully but Yarn fails
yarn wdio 'wdio' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. error Command failed with exist code 1.

while npm
npm run wdio
works fine from all four directories

3) When I installed this way
npm init wdio .
in \child1 and
its parent directory then
yarn wdio
runs as expected

installing in \child2 and \child3
throws this benign error after an install was performed in the parent directory
⚠️ Ups, something went wrong: Error calling: npx wdio config!
Good news: \child2 and \child3 installs do now complete.

yarn wdio
Works fine from all four directories

npm run wdio
Also works fine from all four directories
YouTube
Paul Grossman
WDIO Install Bug Fix (Yarn vs Npm)
Image

Hey @darkartswizard thank you for the video (what software did you use? The zooming is great!).

1. The version is only shown if a new version is installed, apparently you already had this version locally (it is installed globally).

2. You should never ever combine different package managers in one project, ever. It creates a lot of problems and this is not something WebdriverIO can fix. If you use yarn, use yarn for everything in that project. If you use bun, use bun for everything in that project, etc. You get the idea.

I hope this clears it all up, thanks for the thorough testing! 😁