A presentation at Minnebar 19 in in Minneapolis, MN, USA by Brian Muenzenmeyer
Do I still need this dependency for my Node.js app? Brian Muenzenmeyer Minnebar 19
👋 About Me principal engineer leader of open source program office
approachableopensource.com
web-infra, moderation, triage
📣 Dependencies are great!
🆕 New(ish) Features Feature testing source code watching source code parsing arguments reading environment styling output run scripts run typescript transform typescript Introduced 16.17.0 16.19.0 18.3.0 20.6.0 20.12.0 22.0.0 22.6.0 22.7.0 Release Status Stable as of 20.0.0 Stable as of 20.13.0 Stable as of 20.0.0 Active Development Stable, as of 22.13.0 Stable, as of 22.0.0 Active Development Active Development
Oct 2024 Main Node.js 18 Node.js 20 Jan 2025 Jul 2025 Oct 2025 Jan 2026 Apr 2026 UNSTABLE MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE Node.js 22 ACTIVE Node.js 23 CURRENT Node.js 24 Apr 2025 MAINTENANCE CURRENT ACTIVE Jul 2026 Oct 2026
Interestingly, these releases potentially replace an external dependency in your project. Feature testing source code watching source code parsing arguments reading environment styling output run typescript Dependency Replaced jest, ava, ts-jest nodemon commander, yargs dotenv colors, chalk ts-node, tsc
Interestingly, these releases potentially replace an external dependency in your project. Feature testing source code watching source code parsing arguments reading environment styling output run typescript Dependency Replaced jest, ava, ts-jest nodemon commander, yargs dotenv colors, chalk ts-node, tsc, deno, bun 🌶️ 🌶️
🥼 Sample Project I’ve prepared a contrived CLI and server as a code sample of incremental migration.
🙉 Timezones… say what?? The business logic isn’t the star here.
🙉 Timezones… say what?? The business logic isn’t the star here. Let’s get started!
Core business logic ripped straight from an LLM cause they are good at generating garbage: export const createUTCDate = ( year, month, day, hour = 0, minute = 0, second = 0, millisecond = 0, ) => { return new Date(Date.UTC(year, month, day, hour, minute, } export const calculateTimeFromNowTo = (dateString) => { const now = new Date() const utcNow = createUTCDate( now getFullYear()
Core business logic ripped straight from an LLM cause they are good at generating garbage: export const createUTCDate = ( year, month, day, hour = 0, minute = 0, second = 0, millisecond = 0, ) => { return new Date(Date.UTC(year, month, day, hour, minute, } export const calculateTimeFromNowTo = (dateString) => { const now = new Date() const utcNow = createUTCDate( now getFullYear() these days we call that vibin’
You saw the CLI earlier. It also has a server.js file copy-pastaed from the Node.js homepage: import { createServer } from ‘node:http’ import { calculateTimeFromNowTo } from ‘./lib/calculate.js’ const server = createServer((req, res) => { res.writeHead(200, { ‘Content-Type’: ‘text/plain’ }) res.end(calculateTimeFromNowTo(‘2028-11-07’))) }) server.listen(3000, ‘127.0.0.1’, () => { console.log(‘Listening on 127.0.0.1:3000’); })
Now, with node src/server.js one can visit http://localhost:3000 and see the same output.
🧪 Testing Source Code Introduced 16.17.0 For many projects, I’d turn to jest to test my code.
🧪 Testing Source Code Introduced 16.17.0 For many projects, I’d turn to jest to test my code. It’s been the default for so long, is part of the OpenJS Foundation, and enjoys a large ecosystem of tools and attention, making it hard to argue against.
We can test our createUTCDate function with this test: import { createUTCDate } from ‘../calculate.js’ describe(‘createUTCDate’, () => { it(‘should create a date in UTC time’, () => { const date = createUTCDate(2026, 3, 20) // zero-inde expect(date.toISOString()).toEqual(‘2026-04-20T00:00 }) })
And then run it with: “test”: “node —experimental-vm-modules node_modules/jest/bi “test”: “pnpm test:jest —watch”,
And then run it with: “test”: “node —experimental-vm-modules node_modules/jest/bi “test”: “pnpm test:jest —watch”, Already there’s trouble brewing…
Node.js now includes a built-in test runner, node —test improving with each successive release. We can replace the jest scripts with: -“test”: “node -“test”: “pnpm +”test”: “node +”test:watch”: —experimental-vm-modules node_modules/jest/b test:jest —watch”, —test”, “node —test —watch”,
Here’s a test diff: +import { describe, it } from ‘node:test’ // no globals import { createUTCDate } from ‘../calculate.js’ describe(‘createUTCDate’, () => { - it(‘should create a date in UTC time’, () => { + it(‘should create a date in UTC time’, (test) => { const date = createUTCDate(2026, 3, 20) expect(date.toISOString()).toEqual(‘2026-04-20T00:00 + test.assert.strictEqual(date.toISOString(),’2026-04}) })
I’m not interested in the code golf here, but it is worth emphasizing two things:
👀 Watching Source Code Introduced 16.19.0 It’s a common convenience to have tasks re-run when as your source code changes during development.
👀 Watching Source Code Introduced 16.19.0 It’s a common convenience to have tasks re-run when as your source code changes during development. Stopping and restarting the server each time is a pain.
Many frameworks and tools have this built in. If not, a common choice is nodemon. Our sample project contains this script in our package.json: “dev”: “nodemon —watch src src/server.js”
Many frameworks and tools have this built in. If not, a common choice is nodemon. Our sample project contains this script in our package.json: “dev”: “nodemon —watch src src/server.js” Works great, and has for a long time.
But now, Node.js has built-in arguments —watch and —watch-path. We can replace this with: -“dev”: “nodemon —watch src src/server.js”, +”dev”: “node —watch-path src src/server.js”,
Not much different at the surface. It works for this use case.
Not much different at the surface. It works for this use case. Critically, it survives parsing errors in the JavaScript.
💬 Parsing Arguments Introduced 18.3.0 Our server and CLI should accept the date to calculate the “time until”.
node src/index.js —to 2027-03-21 # my 40th birthday 💀
Node.js supports process.argv since 0.1.27 so what’s the fuss?
Node.js supports process.argv since 0.1.27 so what’s the fuss? Tools like yargs and commander have been the go-to for a long time.
Our arguments start by being parsed with yargs like this: import yargs from ‘yargs’ import { hideBin } from ‘yargs/helpers’ const values = yargs(hideBin(process.argv)) .option(‘to’, { type: ‘string’, description: ‘Date string to measure time until’ }) .parseSync()
But we can simplify. +import { parseArgs } from ‘node:util’ -import yargs from ‘yargs’ -import { hideBin } from ‘yargs/helpers’ -const values = yargs(hideBin(process.argv)) -.option(‘to’, { type: ‘string’, description: ‘Date string to measure time until’ - }) -.parseSync() +const { values } = parseArgs({ + strict: true, + options: { + to: {
Lops off the two first arguments by default, synchronous by default, and enough for my needs.
Lops off the two first arguments by default, synchronous by default, and enough for my needs. Node.js also throws an error for missing or extra params - which is nice - and again, perhaps enough.
Lops off the two first arguments by default, synchronous by default, and enough for my needs. Node.js also throws an error for missing or extra params - which is nice - and again, perhaps enough. Need something stronger? You already know where to look, or could try a newcomer like bubbletea.
🌲 Reading Environment Introduced 20.6.0 | Active Development Environment variables provide flexibility and portability to code.
The obvious choice for years and years has been dotenv. One would likely reach for this wherever they want to read env: import ‘dotenv/config’ const { PORT } = process.env …
But Node.js can do this too!. Delete that dotenv import.
We add this to our package.json dev script: -“dev”: “node —watch-path src src/server.js”, +”dev”: “node —env-file=.env —watch-path src src/server.js
We get multiple file support with overrides and a familiar enough syntax to dotenv files.
We get multiple file support with overrides and a familiar enough syntax to dotenv files. Node.js can also error or gracefully handle missing env files, the choice is yours.
🖌️ Styling Output Introduced 20.12.0 | Stable as of 22.13.0 Say we got that server.js start message. Maybe we wanna highlight the full URL that some terminals can click on.
The ubiquitous node_module chalk suffices: const { PORT } = process.env import chalk from ‘chalk’ … server.listen(PORT, ‘127.0.0.1’, () => { console.log( Listening on ${chalk.blue(chalk.underline(http://1 ) })
But look at this native Node.js code, quite new if I do say so myself: const { PORT } = process.env -import chalk from ‘chalk’ +import { styleText } from ‘node:util’ server.listen(PORT, ‘127.0.0.1’, () => { console.log( Listening on ${chalk.blue(chalk.underline(http://127.0 + Listening on ${styleText(['underline', 'blue'],http:/ ) })
📜 Run Scripts Introduced 22.0.0 | Stable as of 22.0.0 Agnostic, faster script invocation.
Make your package.json a bit more portable with: - “lint:fix”: “pnpm lint —fix” + “lint:fix”: “node —run lint — —fix”
Executables must be in /node_modules/.bin
Executables must be in /node_modules/.bin In benchmarking, its 200ms faster than npm run
Executables must be in /node_modules/.bin In benchmarking, its 200ms faster than npm run Does not run pre-and post- scripts
🎮 Checkpoint Nice, we got through quite a bit. But it’s always smart to save before the big boss fight.
What’s left?
What’s left? TypeScript.
🏗️ TypeScript Introduced 22.6.0 | Active Development
🏗️ TypeScript Introduced 22.6.0 | Active Development Native TypeScript support has been a consistent community ask, and an obvious wedge issue.
We have a TypeScript error in that server code snippet.
We have a TypeScript error in that server code snippet. Did you see it?
We have a TypeScript error in that server code snippet. Did you see it? How to start?
We have a TypeScript error in that server code snippet. Did you see it? How to start? With a bold rename to server.ts
This is the code in question: const { PORT } = process.env server.listen(PORT, ‘127.0.0.1’, () => { console.log( Listening on ${styleText(['underline', 'blue'],ht ) })
Hint… const { PORT } = process.env // string | undefined, whoops server.listen(PORT, ‘127.0.0.1’, () => { console.log( Listening on ${styleText(['underline', 'blue'],ht ) })
Hint… const { PORT } = process.env // string | undefined, whoops server.listen(PORT, ‘127.0.0.1’, () => { console.log( Listening on ${styleText(['underline', 'blue'],ht ) })
Missing overloads with our inferred typings.
Fixing this is easy enough: -const { PORT } = process.env +const PORT = Number(process.env.PORT)
To run it? We can replace the dev script with: -“dev:node”: “node —env-file=.env —watch-path src src/serv +”dev:node”: “node —experimental-strip-types —env-file=.en
And as of v23.6.0 in January, this runs without the flag at all! node —env-file=.env —watch-path src src/server.ts
🤓 Reply guy: Well actually, you didn’t build the project at all, it only removed the typings, flowstyle. Sad!
🤓 Reply guy: Well actually, you didn’t build the project at all, it only removed the typings, flowstyle. Sad! But wait, I say, my editor gave me immediate feedback of the error, without needing a build process at all.
Some notes: no type-stripping under node_modules
Some notes: no type-stripping under node_modules (yet)
Some notes: no type-stripping under node_modules (yet) —experimental-transform-types
Some notes: no type-stripping under node_modules (yet) —experimental-transform-types —erasableSyntaxOnly for TS@5.8
🛑 STOP Let’s not go deeper today. I’ll spare you the ESM + TypeScript + Jest headache. 👉
Okay, well, can we do the same incremental running of our server.ts file with a dependency? Of course we can. In fact, the ts-node and nodemon docs allude to the fact that this should just work: “dev:nodemon”: “nodemon —watch src src/server.js”,
This was after temporarily dropping the watch glob, as the default is… . . What we uncover, however, is a problem lurking around the whole post, ESM. 🤝
nodemon src/server.ts [nodemon] 3.1.9 [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter
rs[nodemon] watching path(s): . [nodemon] watching extensions: ts,json [nodemon] startingts-node src/server.tsTypeError: Unknown file extension “.ts” for /workspaces/time at Object.getFileProtocolModuleFormat [as file:] (node:i at defaultGetFormat (node:internal/modules/esm/get_forma at defaultLoad (node:internal/modules/esm/load:122:22) at async ModuleLoader.loadAndTranslate (node:internal/mo at async ModuleJob._link (node:internal/modules/esm/modu code: ‘ERR_UNKNOWN_FILE_EXTENSION’ } [nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before star
Ugh. Googling around, this is potentially a “famous” problem with ESM + TypeScript. I won’t even discuss Jest right now. I did get it working but we shouldn’t mention it. 🙊 I’m staying true to this process, so no, we aren’t talking about Bruno and Deno. That’s not the point, yet. We’re almost there, I promise.
tsx I guess is maybe something? This worked: “dev:nodemon”: “nodemon —exec pnpm tsx src/server.ts”
⚖️ Comparisons This ain’t your entire app…
⚖️ Comparisons This ain’t your entire app… …and we can all caveat this with enough asterisks to call in Legal.
⚖️ Comparisons This ain’t your entire app… …and we can all caveat this with enough asterisks to call in Legal. But numbers are numbers.
Metric Before After
215 2 49 MB 2.6 MB size node_modules Delta 0.9%, or 107 times smaller 5.3%, or 18 times smaller 🔬 npm-built node_modules, omitting biome dev dependencies
⚡ All this, with two orders of magnitude less dependencies. Dependabot will be bored.
☀️ Pace Layers
symmathesy: together, learn An entity composed by transcontextual mutual learning through interaction — Nora Bateson
🔥 Churn is pace layers in motion.
By design, we can celebrate that:
By design, we can celebrate that: innovation can be quick / creators have agency to explore
By design, we can celebrate that: innovation can be quick / creators have agency to explore competition puts pressure on established systems to improve
By design, we can celebrate that: innovation can be quick / creators have agency to explore competition puts pressure on established systems to improve maintainers craving momentum and stability have space and time to cultivate
By design, we can celebrate that: innovation can be quick / creators have agency to explore competition puts pressure on established systems to improve maintainers craving momentum and stability have space and time to cultivate layers exist for anyone to contribute within their means
“Fast learns; slow remembers.” — Stewart Brand
Find your layer. There’s room for all of us.
Thanks
Advancements over time in Node.js are improving the out of the box experience. New versions are released all the time across Active LTS and Current development lines. It’s easy to miss something between the release notes and our busy work schedules. Through the efforts of contributors over several recent majors, great new features are landing. Each is useful in isolation, but put together they form a more and more comprehensive standard library.
We’ll walk through 6 recent improvements to the standard library. Each feature may replace a dependency in the stack, simplifying your footprint and reducing support burden. We’ll walk through complete before and after diffs, get real about production readiness, and use live examples.
This iterative evolution of the project is part of a larger system of learning - continual innovation and stable foundations in balance and conflict. We’ll contextualize how this is a marker of a vibrant, competitive ecosystem. and what we can do to keep it that way in our careers and on our teams. Lastly, I’ll inspire attendees to see themselves within these pace layers and find the open source engagement that meets their constraints, skillsets, and time constraints.
for free. You
can too.