Exporting your local nvm path in ~/.profile could do the trick. You may need to logout for the change to take effect.
If you are developing something locally which you want to by executing a desktop entry you will need use a script or set the nvm path in the desktop entry.
E.g.
Exec=NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" myapp
From the nvm package install file
You need to source nvm before you can use it. Do one of the following
or similar depending on your shell (and then restart your shell):
echo 'source /usr/share/nvm/init-nvm.sh' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'source /usr/share/nvm/init-nvm.sh' >> ~/.zshrc
You can now install node.js versions (e.g. nvm install 10) and
activate them (e.g. nvm use 10).
init-nvm.sh is a convenience script which does the following:
[ -z "$NVM_DIR" ] && export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
source /usr/share/nvm/nvm.sh
source /usr/share/nvm/bash_completion
source /usr/share/nvm/install-nvm-exec
You may wish to customize and put these lines directly in your
.bashrc (or similar) if, for example, you would like an NVM_DIR
other than ~/.nvm or you don't want bash completion.
See the nvm readme for more information: https://github.com/creationix/nvm