Node.js v23.0.0-nightly20240917d5c29ba12d documentation

Contributing#

Report errors in this documentation in the issue tracker. See the contributing guide for directions on how to submit pull requests.

Stability index#

Throughout the documentation are indications of a section's stability. Some APIs are so proven and so relied upon that they are unlikely to ever change at all. Others are brand new and experimental, or known to be hazardous.

The stability indexes are as follows:

Features are marked as legacy rather than being deprecated if their use does no harm, and they are widely relied upon within the npm ecosystem. Bugs found in legacy features are unlikely to be fixed.

Use caution when making use of Experimental features, particularly when authoring libraries. Users may not be aware that experimental features are being used. Bugs or behavior changes may surprise users when Experimental API modifications occur. To avoid surprises, use of an Experimental feature may need a command-line flag. Experimental features may also emit a warning.

Stability overview#

JSON output#

Every .html document has a corresponding .json document. This is for IDEs and other utilities that consume the documentation.

System calls and man pages#

Node.js functions which wrap a system call will document that. The docs link to the corresponding man pages which describe how the system call works.

Most Unix system calls have Windows analogues. Still, behavior differences may be unavoidable.

Usage#

node [options] [V8 options] [script.js | -e "script" | - ] [arguments]

Please see the Command-line options document for more information.

Example#

An example of a web server written with Node.js which responds with 'Hello, World!':

Commands in this document start with $ or > to replicate how they would appear in a user's terminal. Do not include the $ and > characters. They are there to show the start of each command.

Lines that don't start with $ or > character show the output of the previous command.

First, make sure to have downloaded and installed Node.js. See Installing Node.js via package manager for further install information.

Now, create an empty project folder called projects, then navigate into it.

Linux and Mac:

mkdir ~/projects
cd ~/projects copy

Windows CMD:

mkdir %USERPROFILE%\projects
cd %USERPROFILE%\projects copy

Windows PowerShell:

mkdir $env:USERPROFILE\projects
cd $env:USERPROFILE\projects copy

Next, create a new source file in the projects folder and call it hello-world.js.

Open hello-world.js in any preferred text editor and paste in the following content:

const http = require('node:http');

const hostname = '127.0.0.1';
const port = 3000;

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.statusCode = 200;
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
  res.end('Hello, World!\n');
});

server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
  console.log(`Server running at http://${hostname}:${port}/`);
}); copy

Save the file. Then, in the terminal window, to run the hello-world.js file, enter:

node hello-world.js copy

Output like this should appear in the terminal:

Server running at http://127.0.0.1:3000/ copy

Now, open any preferred web browser and visit http://127.0.0.1:3000.

If the browser displays the string Hello, World!, that indicates the server is working.

Strict assertion mode#

In strict assertion mode, non-strict methods behave like their corresponding strict methods. For example, assert.deepEqual() will behave like assert.deepStrictEqual().

In strict assertion mode, error messages for objects display a diff. In legacy assertion mode, error messages for objects display the objects, often truncated.

To use strict assertion mode:

import { strict as assert } from 'node:assert';const assert = require('node:assert').strict;copy

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';const assert = require('node:assert/strict');copy

Example error diff:

import { strict as assert } from 'node:assert';

assert.deepEqual([[[1, 2, 3]], 4, 5], [[[1, 2, '3']], 4, 5]);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected ... Lines skipped
//
//   [
//     [
// ...
//       2,
// +     3
// -     '3'
//     ],
// ...
//     5
//   ]const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.deepEqual([[[1, 2, 3]], 4, 5], [[[1, 2, '3']], 4, 5]);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected ... Lines skipped
//
//   [
//     [
// ...
//       2,
// +     3
// -     '3'
//     ],
// ...
//     5
//   ]copy

To deactivate the colors, use the NO_COLOR or NODE_DISABLE_COLORS environment variables. This will also deactivate the colors in the REPL. For more on color support in terminal environments, read the tty getColorDepth() documentation.

Legacy assertion mode#

Legacy assertion mode uses the == operator in:

• assert.deepEqual()
• assert.equal()
• assert.notDeepEqual()
• assert.notEqual()

To use legacy assertion mode:

import assert from 'node:assert';const assert = require('node:assert');copy

Legacy assertion mode may have surprising results, especially when using assert.deepEqual():

// WARNING: This does not throw an AssertionError in legacy assertion mode!
assert.deepEqual(/a/gi, new Date()); copy

Class: assert.AssertionError[src]#

• Extends: <errors.Error>

Indicates the failure of an assertion. All errors thrown by the node:assert module will be instances of the AssertionError class.

new assert.AssertionError(options)#

• options <Object>
  • message <string> If provided, the error message is set to this value.
  • actual <any> The actual property on the error instance.
  • expected <any> The expected property on the error instance.
  • operator <string> The operator property on the error instance.
  • stackStartFn <Function> If provided, the generated stack trace omits frames before this function.

A subclass of Error that indicates the failure of an assertion.

All instances contain the built-in Error properties (message and name) and:

• actual <any> Set to the actual argument for methods such as assert.strictEqual().
• expected <any> Set to the expected value for methods such as assert.strictEqual().
• generatedMessage <boolean> Indicates if the message was auto-generated (true) or not.
• code <string> Value is always ERR_ASSERTION to show that the error is an assertion error.
• operator <string> Set to the passed in operator value.

import assert from 'node:assert';

// Generate an AssertionError to compare the error message later:
const { message } = new assert.AssertionError({
  actual: 1,
  expected: 2,
  operator: 'strictEqual',
});

// Verify error output:
try {
  assert.strictEqual(1, 2);
} catch (err) {
  assert(err instanceof assert.AssertionError);
  assert.strictEqual(err.message, message);
  assert.strictEqual(err.name, 'AssertionError');
  assert.strictEqual(err.actual, 1);
  assert.strictEqual(err.expected, 2);
  assert.strictEqual(err.code, 'ERR_ASSERTION');
  assert.strictEqual(err.operator, 'strictEqual');
  assert.strictEqual(err.generatedMessage, true);
}const assert = require('node:assert');

// Generate an AssertionError to compare the error message later:
const { message } = new assert.AssertionError({
  actual: 1,
  expected: 2,
  operator: 'strictEqual',
});

// Verify error output:
try {
  assert.strictEqual(1, 2);
} catch (err) {
  assert(err instanceof assert.AssertionError);
  assert.strictEqual(err.message, message);
  assert.strictEqual(err.name, 'AssertionError');
  assert.strictEqual(err.actual, 1);
  assert.strictEqual(err.expected, 2);
  assert.strictEqual(err.code, 'ERR_ASSERTION');
  assert.strictEqual(err.operator, 'strictEqual');
  assert.strictEqual(err.generatedMessage, true);
}copy

Class: assert.CallTracker#

This feature is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. Please consider using alternatives such as the mock helper function.

new assert.CallTracker()#

Creates a new CallTracker object which can be used to track if functions were called a specific number of times. The tracker.verify() must be called for the verification to take place. The usual pattern would be to call it in a process.on('exit') handler.

import assert from 'node:assert';
import process from 'node:process';

const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// callsfunc() must be called exactly 1 time before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func, 1);

callsfunc();

// Calls tracker.verify() and verifies if all tracker.calls() functions have
// been called exact times.
process.on('exit', () => {
  tracker.verify();
});const assert = require('node:assert');
const process = require('node:process');

const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// callsfunc() must be called exactly 1 time before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func, 1);

callsfunc();

// Calls tracker.verify() and verifies if all tracker.calls() functions have
// been called exact times.
process.on('exit', () => {
  tracker.verify();
});copy

tracker.calls([fn][, exact])#

• fn <Function> Default: A no-op function.
• exact <number> Default: 1.
• Returns: <Function> A function that wraps fn.

The wrapper function is expected to be called exactly exact times. If the function has not been called exactly exact times when tracker.verify() is called, then tracker.verify() will throw an error.

import assert from 'node:assert';

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// Returns a function that wraps func() that must be called exact times
// before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func);const assert = require('node:assert');

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// Returns a function that wraps func() that must be called exact times
// before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func);copy

tracker.getCalls(fn)#

• fn <Function>

• Returns: <Array> An array with all the calls to a tracked function.

• Object <Object>

  • thisArg <Object>
  • arguments <Array> the arguments passed to the tracked function

import assert from 'node:assert';

const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func);
callsfunc(1, 2, 3);

assert.deepStrictEqual(tracker.getCalls(callsfunc),
                       [{ thisArg: undefined, arguments: [1, 2, 3] }]);const assert = require('node:assert');

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func);
callsfunc(1, 2, 3);

assert.deepStrictEqual(tracker.getCalls(callsfunc),
                       [{ thisArg: undefined, arguments: [1, 2, 3] }]);copy

tracker.report()#

• Returns: <Array> An array of objects containing information about the wrapper functions returned by tracker.calls().
• Object <Object>
  • message <string>
  • actual <number> The actual number of times the function was called.
  • expected <number> The number of times the function was expected to be called.
  • operator <string> The name of the function that is wrapped.
  • stack <Object> A stack trace of the function.

The arrays contains information about the expected and actual number of calls of the functions that have not been called the expected number of times.

import assert from 'node:assert';

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// Returns a function that wraps func() that must be called exact times
// before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func, 2);

// Returns an array containing information on callsfunc()
console.log(tracker.report());
// [
//  {
//    message: 'Expected the func function to be executed 2 time(s) but was
//    executed 0 time(s).',
//    actual: 0,
//    expected: 2,
//    operator: 'func',
//    stack: stack trace
//  }
// ]const assert = require('node:assert');

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// Returns a function that wraps func() that must be called exact times
// before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func, 2);

// Returns an array containing information on callsfunc()
console.log(tracker.report());
// [
//  {
//    message: 'Expected the func function to be executed 2 time(s) but was
//    executed 0 time(s).',
//    actual: 0,
//    expected: 2,
//    operator: 'func',
//    stack: stack trace
//  }
// ]copy

tracker.reset([fn])#

• fn <Function> a tracked function to reset.

Reset calls of the call tracker. If a tracked function is passed as an argument, the calls will be reset for it. If no arguments are passed, all tracked functions will be reset.

import assert from 'node:assert';

const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func);

callsfunc();
// Tracker was called once
assert.strictEqual(tracker.getCalls(callsfunc).length, 1);

tracker.reset(callsfunc);
assert.strictEqual(tracker.getCalls(callsfunc).length, 0);const assert = require('node:assert');

const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func);

callsfunc();
// Tracker was called once
assert.strictEqual(tracker.getCalls(callsfunc).length, 1);

tracker.reset(callsfunc);
assert.strictEqual(tracker.getCalls(callsfunc).length, 0);copy

tracker.verify()#

Iterates through the list of functions passed to tracker.calls() and will throw an error for functions that have not been called the expected number of times.

import assert from 'node:assert';

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// Returns a function that wraps func() that must be called exact times
// before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func, 2);

callsfunc();

// Will throw an error since callsfunc() was only called once.
tracker.verify();const assert = require('node:assert');

// Creates call tracker.
const tracker = new assert.CallTracker();

function func() {}

// Returns a function that wraps func() that must be called exact times
// before tracker.verify().
const callsfunc = tracker.calls(func, 2);

callsfunc();

// Will throw an error since callsfunc() was only called once.
tracker.verify();copy

assert(value[, message])#

• value <any> The input that is checked for being truthy.
• message <string> | <Error>

An alias of assert.ok().

assert.deepEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Strict assertion mode

An alias of assert.deepStrictEqual().

Legacy assertion mode

Tests for deep equality between the actual and expected parameters. Consider using assert.deepStrictEqual() instead. assert.deepEqual() can have surprising results.

Deep equality means that the enumerable "own" properties of child objects are also recursively evaluated by the following rules.

Comparison details#

• Primitive values are compared with the == operator, with the exception of NaN. It is treated as being identical in case both sides are NaN.
• Type tags of objects should be the same.
• Only enumerable "own" properties are considered.
• Error names, messages, causes, and errors are always compared, even if these are not enumerable properties.
• Object wrappers are compared both as objects and unwrapped values.
• Object properties are compared unordered.
• Map keys and Set items are compared unordered.
• Recursion stops when both sides differ or both sides encounter a circular reference.
• Implementation does not test the [[Prototype]] of objects.
• Symbol properties are not compared.
• WeakMap and WeakSet comparison does not rely on their values but only on their instances.
• RegExp lastIndex, flags, and source are always compared, even if these are not enumerable properties.

The following example does not throw an AssertionError because the primitives are compared using the == operator.

import assert from 'node:assert';
// WARNING: This does not throw an AssertionError!

assert.deepEqual('+00000000', false);const assert = require('node:assert');
// WARNING: This does not throw an AssertionError!

assert.deepEqual('+00000000', false);copy

"Deep" equality means that the enumerable "own" properties of child objects are evaluated also:

import assert from 'node:assert';

const obj1 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj2 = {
  a: {
    b: 2,
  },
};
const obj3 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj4 = { __proto__: obj1 };

assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj1);
// OK

// Values of b are different:
assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj2);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } deepEqual { a: { b: 2 } }

assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj3);
// OK

// Prototypes are ignored:
assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj4);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } deepEqual {}const assert = require('node:assert');

const obj1 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj2 = {
  a: {
    b: 2,
  },
};
const obj3 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj4 = { __proto__: obj1 };

assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj1);
// OK

// Values of b are different:
assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj2);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } deepEqual { a: { b: 2 } }

assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj3);
// OK

// Prototypes are ignored:
assert.deepEqual(obj1, obj4);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } deepEqual {}copy

If the values are not equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.deepStrictEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Tests for deep equality between the actual and expected parameters. "Deep" equality means that the enumerable "own" properties of child objects are recursively evaluated also by the following rules.

Comparison details#

• Primitive values are compared using Object.is().
• Type tags of objects should be the same.
• [[Prototype]] of objects are compared using the === operator.
• Only enumerable "own" properties are considered.
• Error names, messages, causes, and errors are always compared, even if these are not enumerable properties. errors is also compared.
• Enumerable own Symbol properties are compared as well.
• Object wrappers are compared both as objects and unwrapped values.
• Object properties are compared unordered.
• Map keys and Set items are compared unordered.
• Recursion stops when both sides differ or both sides encounter a circular reference.
• WeakMap and WeakSet comparison does not rely on their values. See below for further details.
• RegExp lastIndex, flags, and source are always compared, even if these are not enumerable properties.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

// This fails because 1 !== '1'.
assert.deepStrictEqual({ a: 1 }, { a: '1' });
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
//   {
// +   a: 1
// -   a: '1'
//   }

// The following objects don't have own properties
const date = new Date();
const object = {};
const fakeDate = {};
Object.setPrototypeOf(fakeDate, Date.prototype);

// Different [[Prototype]]:
assert.deepStrictEqual(object, fakeDate);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + {}
// - Date {}

// Different type tags:
assert.deepStrictEqual(date, fakeDate);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + 2018-04-26T00:49:08.604Z
// - Date {}

assert.deepStrictEqual(NaN, NaN);
// OK because Object.is(NaN, NaN) is true.

// Different unwrapped numbers:
assert.deepStrictEqual(new Number(1), new Number(2));
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + [Number: 1]
// - [Number: 2]

assert.deepStrictEqual(new String('foo'), Object('foo'));
// OK because the object and the string are identical when unwrapped.

assert.deepStrictEqual(-0, -0);
// OK

// Different zeros:
assert.deepStrictEqual(0, -0);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + 0
// - -0

const symbol1 = Symbol();
const symbol2 = Symbol();
assert.deepStrictEqual({ [symbol1]: 1 }, { [symbol1]: 1 });
// OK, because it is the same symbol on both objects.

assert.deepStrictEqual({ [symbol1]: 1 }, { [symbol2]: 1 });
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Inputs identical but not reference equal:
//
// {
//   [Symbol()]: 1
// }

const weakMap1 = new WeakMap();
const weakMap2 = new WeakMap([[{}, {}]]);
const weakMap3 = new WeakMap();
weakMap3.unequal = true;

assert.deepStrictEqual(weakMap1, weakMap2);
// OK, because it is impossible to compare the entries

// Fails because weakMap3 has a property that weakMap1 does not contain:
assert.deepStrictEqual(weakMap1, weakMap3);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
//   WeakMap {
// +   [items unknown]
// -   [items unknown],
// -   unequal: true
//   }const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

// This fails because 1 !== '1'.
assert.deepStrictEqual({ a: 1 }, { a: '1' });
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
//   {
// +   a: 1
// -   a: '1'
//   }

// The following objects don't have own properties
const date = new Date();
const object = {};
const fakeDate = {};
Object.setPrototypeOf(fakeDate, Date.prototype);

// Different [[Prototype]]:
assert.deepStrictEqual(object, fakeDate);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + {}
// - Date {}

// Different type tags:
assert.deepStrictEqual(date, fakeDate);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + 2018-04-26T00:49:08.604Z
// - Date {}

assert.deepStrictEqual(NaN, NaN);
// OK because Object.is(NaN, NaN) is true.

// Different unwrapped numbers:
assert.deepStrictEqual(new Number(1), new Number(2));
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + [Number: 1]
// - [Number: 2]

assert.deepStrictEqual(new String('foo'), Object('foo'));
// OK because the object and the string are identical when unwrapped.

assert.deepStrictEqual(-0, -0);
// OK

// Different zeros:
assert.deepStrictEqual(0, -0);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + 0
// - -0

const symbol1 = Symbol();
const symbol2 = Symbol();
assert.deepStrictEqual({ [symbol1]: 1 }, { [symbol1]: 1 });
// OK, because it is the same symbol on both objects.

assert.deepStrictEqual({ [symbol1]: 1 }, { [symbol2]: 1 });
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Inputs identical but not reference equal:
//
// {
//   [Symbol()]: 1
// }

const weakMap1 = new WeakMap();
const weakMap2 = new WeakMap([[{}, {}]]);
const weakMap3 = new WeakMap();
weakMap3.unequal = true;

assert.deepStrictEqual(weakMap1, weakMap2);
// OK, because it is impossible to compare the entries

// Fails because weakMap3 has a property that weakMap1 does not contain:
assert.deepStrictEqual(weakMap1, weakMap3);
// AssertionError: Expected inputs to be strictly deep-equal:
// + actual - expected
//
//   WeakMap {
// +   [items unknown]
// -   [items unknown],
// -   unequal: true
//   }copy

If the values are not equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.doesNotMatch(string, regexp[, message])#

• string <string>
• regexp <RegExp>
• message <string> | <Error>

Expects the string input not to match the regular expression.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.doesNotMatch('I will fail', /fail/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The input was expected to not match the ...

assert.doesNotMatch(123, /pass/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The "string" argument must be of type string.

assert.doesNotMatch('I will pass', /different/);
// OKconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.doesNotMatch('I will fail', /fail/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The input was expected to not match the ...

assert.doesNotMatch(123, /pass/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The "string" argument must be of type string.

assert.doesNotMatch('I will pass', /different/);
// OKcopy

If the values do match, or if the string argument is of another type than string, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.doesNotReject(asyncFn[, error][, message])#

• asyncFn <Function> | <Promise>
• error <RegExp> | <Function>
• message <string>

Awaits the asyncFn promise or, if asyncFn is a function, immediately calls the function and awaits the returned promise to complete. It will then check that the promise is not rejected.

If asyncFn is a function and it throws an error synchronously, assert.doesNotReject() will return a rejected Promise with that error. If the function does not return a promise, assert.doesNotReject() will return a rejected Promise with an ERR_INVALID_RETURN_VALUE error. In both cases the error handler is skipped.

Using assert.doesNotReject() is actually not useful because there is little benefit in catching a rejection and then rejecting it again. Instead, consider adding a comment next to the specific code path that should not reject and keep error messages as expressive as possible.

If specified, error can be a Class, RegExp, or a validation function. See assert.throws() for more details.

Besides the async nature to await the completion behaves identically to assert.doesNotThrow().

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

await assert.doesNotReject(
  async () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  SyntaxError,
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

(async () => {
  await assert.doesNotReject(
    async () => {
      throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
    },
    SyntaxError,
  );
})();copy

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.doesNotReject(Promise.reject(new TypeError('Wrong value')))
  .then(() => {
    // ...
  });const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.doesNotReject(Promise.reject(new TypeError('Wrong value')))
  .then(() => {
    // ...
  });copy

assert.doesNotThrow(fn[, error][, message])#

• fn <Function>
• error <RegExp> | <Function>
• message <string>

Asserts that the function fn does not throw an error.

Using assert.doesNotThrow() is actually not useful because there is no benefit in catching an error and then rethrowing it. Instead, consider adding a comment next to the specific code path that should not throw and keep error messages as expressive as possible.

When assert.doesNotThrow() is called, it will immediately call the fn function.

If an error is thrown and it is the same type as that specified by the error parameter, then an AssertionError is thrown. If the error is of a different type, or if the error parameter is undefined, the error is propagated back to the caller.

If specified, error can be a Class, RegExp, or a validation function. See assert.throws() for more details.

The following, for instance, will throw the TypeError because there is no matching error type in the assertion:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.doesNotThrow(
  () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  SyntaxError,
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.doesNotThrow(
  () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  SyntaxError,
);copy

However, the following will result in an AssertionError with the message 'Got unwanted exception...':

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.doesNotThrow(
  () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  TypeError,
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.doesNotThrow(
  () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  TypeError,
);copy

If an AssertionError is thrown and a value is provided for the message parameter, the value of message will be appended to the AssertionError message:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.doesNotThrow(
  () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  /Wrong value/,
  'Whoops',
);
// Throws: AssertionError: Got unwanted exception: Whoopsconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.doesNotThrow(
  () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  /Wrong value/,
  'Whoops',
);
// Throws: AssertionError: Got unwanted exception: Whoopscopy

assert.equal(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Strict assertion mode

An alias of assert.strictEqual().

Legacy assertion mode

Tests shallow, coercive equality between the actual and expected parameters using the == operator. NaN is specially handled and treated as being identical if both sides are NaN.

import assert from 'node:assert';

assert.equal(1, 1);
// OK, 1 == 1
assert.equal(1, '1');
// OK, 1 == '1'
assert.equal(NaN, NaN);
// OK

assert.equal(1, 2);
// AssertionError: 1 == 2
assert.equal({ a: { b: 1 } }, { a: { b: 1 } });
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } == { a: { b: 1 } }const assert = require('node:assert');

assert.equal(1, 1);
// OK, 1 == 1
assert.equal(1, '1');
// OK, 1 == '1'
assert.equal(NaN, NaN);
// OK

assert.equal(1, 2);
// AssertionError: 1 == 2
assert.equal({ a: { b: 1 } }, { a: { b: 1 } });
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } == { a: { b: 1 } }copy

If the values are not equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.fail([message])#

• message <string> | <Error> Default: 'Failed'

Throws an AssertionError with the provided error message or a default error message. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.fail();
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Failed

assert.fail('boom');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: boom

assert.fail(new TypeError('need array'));
// TypeError: need arrayconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.fail();
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Failed

assert.fail('boom');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: boom

assert.fail(new TypeError('need array'));
// TypeError: need arraycopy

Using assert.fail() with more than two arguments is possible but deprecated. See below for further details.

assert.fail(actual, expected[, message[, operator[, stackStartFn]]])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>
• operator <string> Default: '!='
• stackStartFn <Function> Default: assert.fail

If message is falsy, the error message is set as the values of actual and expected separated by the provided operator. If just the two actual and expected arguments are provided, operator will default to '!='. If message is provided as third argument it will be used as the error message and the other arguments will be stored as properties on the thrown object. If stackStartFn is provided, all stack frames above that function will be removed from stacktrace (see Error.captureStackTrace). If no arguments are given, the default message Failed will be used.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.fail('a', 'b');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: 'a' != 'b'

assert.fail(1, 2, undefined, '>');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: 1 > 2

assert.fail(1, 2, 'fail');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: fail

assert.fail(1, 2, 'whoops', '>');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: whoops

assert.fail(1, 2, new TypeError('need array'));
// TypeError: need arrayconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.fail('a', 'b');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: 'a' != 'b'

assert.fail(1, 2, undefined, '>');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: 1 > 2

assert.fail(1, 2, 'fail');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: fail

assert.fail(1, 2, 'whoops', '>');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: whoops

assert.fail(1, 2, new TypeError('need array'));
// TypeError: need arraycopy

In the last three cases actual, expected, and operator have no influence on the error message.

Example use of stackStartFn for truncating the exception's stacktrace:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

function suppressFrame() {
  assert.fail('a', 'b', undefined, '!==', suppressFrame);
}
suppressFrame();
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: 'a' !== 'b'
//     at repl:1:1
//     at ContextifyScript.Script.runInThisContext (vm.js:44:33)
//     ...const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

function suppressFrame() {
  assert.fail('a', 'b', undefined, '!==', suppressFrame);
}
suppressFrame();
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: 'a' !== 'b'
//     at repl:1:1
//     at ContextifyScript.Script.runInThisContext (vm.js:44:33)
//     ...copy

assert.ifError(value)#

• value <any>

Throws value if value is not undefined or null. This is useful when testing the error argument in callbacks. The stack trace contains all frames from the error passed to ifError() including the potential new frames for ifError() itself.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.ifError(null);
// OK
assert.ifError(0);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: 0
assert.ifError('error');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: 'error'
assert.ifError(new Error());
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: Error

// Create some random error frames.
let err;
(function errorFrame() {
  err = new Error('test error');
})();

(function ifErrorFrame() {
  assert.ifError(err);
})();
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: test error
//     at ifErrorFrame
//     at errorFrameconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.ifError(null);
// OK
assert.ifError(0);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: 0
assert.ifError('error');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: 'error'
assert.ifError(new Error());
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: Error

// Create some random error frames.
let err;
(function errorFrame() {
  err = new Error('test error');
})();

(function ifErrorFrame() {
  assert.ifError(err);
})();
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: ifError got unwanted exception: test error
//     at ifErrorFrame
//     at errorFramecopy

assert.match(string, regexp[, message])#

• string <string>
• regexp <RegExp>
• message <string> | <Error>

Expects the string input to match the regular expression.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.match('I will fail', /pass/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The input did not match the regular ...

assert.match(123, /pass/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The "string" argument must be of type string.

assert.match('I will pass', /pass/);
// OKconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.match('I will fail', /pass/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The input did not match the regular ...

assert.match(123, /pass/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: The "string" argument must be of type string.

assert.match('I will pass', /pass/);
// OKcopy

If the values do not match, or if the string argument is of another type than string, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.notDeepEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Strict assertion mode

An alias of assert.notDeepStrictEqual().

Legacy assertion mode

Tests for any deep inequality. Opposite of assert.deepEqual().

import assert from 'node:assert';

const obj1 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj2 = {
  a: {
    b: 2,
  },
};
const obj3 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj4 = { __proto__: obj1 };

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj1);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } notDeepEqual { a: { b: 1 } }

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj2);
// OK

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj3);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } notDeepEqual { a: { b: 1 } }

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj4);
// OKconst assert = require('node:assert');

const obj1 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj2 = {
  a: {
    b: 2,
  },
};
const obj3 = {
  a: {
    b: 1,
  },
};
const obj4 = { __proto__: obj1 };

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj1);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } notDeepEqual { a: { b: 1 } }

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj2);
// OK

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj3);
// AssertionError: { a: { b: 1 } } notDeepEqual { a: { b: 1 } }

assert.notDeepEqual(obj1, obj4);
// OKcopy

If the values are deeply equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.notDeepStrictEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Tests for deep strict inequality. Opposite of assert.deepStrictEqual().

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.notDeepStrictEqual({ a: 1 }, { a: '1' });
// OKconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.notDeepStrictEqual({ a: 1 }, { a: '1' });
// OKcopy

If the values are deeply and strictly equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.notEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Strict assertion mode

An alias of assert.notStrictEqual().

Legacy assertion mode

Tests shallow, coercive inequality with the != operator. NaN is specially handled and treated as being identical if both sides are NaN.

import assert from 'node:assert';

assert.notEqual(1, 2);
// OK

assert.notEqual(1, 1);
// AssertionError: 1 != 1

assert.notEqual(1, '1');
// AssertionError: 1 != '1'const assert = require('node:assert');

assert.notEqual(1, 2);
// OK

assert.notEqual(1, 1);
// AssertionError: 1 != 1

assert.notEqual(1, '1');
// AssertionError: 1 != '1'copy

If the values are equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.notStrictEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Tests strict inequality between the actual and expected parameters as determined by Object.is().

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.notStrictEqual(1, 2);
// OK

assert.notStrictEqual(1, 1);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected "actual" to be strictly unequal to:
//
// 1

assert.notStrictEqual(1, '1');
// OKconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.notStrictEqual(1, 2);
// OK

assert.notStrictEqual(1, 1);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected "actual" to be strictly unequal to:
//
// 1

assert.notStrictEqual(1, '1');
// OKcopy

If the values are strictly equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.ok(value[, message])#

• value <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Tests if value is truthy. It is equivalent to assert.equal(!!value, true, message).

If value is not truthy, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError. If no arguments are passed in at all message will be set to the string: 'No value argument passed to `assert.ok()`'.

Be aware that in the repl the error message will be different to the one thrown in a file! See below for further details.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.ok(true);
// OK
assert.ok(1);
// OK

assert.ok();
// AssertionError: No value argument passed to `assert.ok()`

assert.ok(false, 'it\'s false');
// AssertionError: it's false

// In the repl:
assert.ok(typeof 123 === 'string');
// AssertionError: false == true

// In a file (e.g. test.js):
assert.ok(typeof 123 === 'string');
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert.ok(typeof 123 === 'string')

assert.ok(false);
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert.ok(false)

assert.ok(0);
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert.ok(0)const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.ok(true);
// OK
assert.ok(1);
// OK

assert.ok();
// AssertionError: No value argument passed to `assert.ok()`

assert.ok(false, 'it\'s false');
// AssertionError: it's false

// In the repl:
assert.ok(typeof 123 === 'string');
// AssertionError: false == true

// In a file (e.g. test.js):
assert.ok(typeof 123 === 'string');
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert.ok(typeof 123 === 'string')

assert.ok(false);
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert.ok(false)

assert.ok(0);
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert.ok(0)copy

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

// Using `assert()` works the same:
assert(0);
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert(0)const assert = require('node:assert');

// Using `assert()` works the same:
assert(0);
// AssertionError: The expression evaluated to a falsy value:
//
//   assert(0)copy

assert.rejects(asyncFn[, error][, message])#

• asyncFn <Function> | <Promise>
• error <RegExp> | <Function> | <Object> | <Error>
• message <string>

Awaits the asyncFn promise or, if asyncFn is a function, immediately calls the function and awaits the returned promise to complete. It will then check that the promise is rejected.

If asyncFn is a function and it throws an error synchronously, assert.rejects() will return a rejected Promise with that error. If the function does not return a promise, assert.rejects() will return a rejected Promise with an ERR_INVALID_RETURN_VALUE error. In both cases the error handler is skipped.

Besides the async nature to await the completion behaves identically to assert.throws().

If specified, error can be a Class, RegExp, a validation function, an object where each property will be tested for, or an instance of error where each property will be tested for including the non-enumerable message and name properties.

If specified, message will be the message provided by the AssertionError if the asyncFn fails to reject.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

await assert.rejects(
  async () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  {
    name: 'TypeError',
    message: 'Wrong value',
  },
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

(async () => {
  await assert.rejects(
    async () => {
      throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
    },
    {
      name: 'TypeError',
      message: 'Wrong value',
    },
  );
})();copy

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

await assert.rejects(
  async () => {
    throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
  },
  (err) => {
    assert.strictEqual(err.name, 'TypeError');
    assert.strictEqual(err.message, 'Wrong value');
    return true;
  },
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

(async () => {
  await assert.rejects(
    async () => {
      throw new TypeError('Wrong value');
    },
    (err) => {
      assert.strictEqual(err.name, 'TypeError');
      assert.strictEqual(err.message, 'Wrong value');
      return true;
    },
  );
})();copy

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.rejects(
  Promise.reject(new Error('Wrong value')),
  Error,
).then(() => {
  // ...
});const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.rejects(
  Promise.reject(new Error('Wrong value')),
  Error,
).then(() => {
  // ...
});copy

error cannot be a string. If a string is provided as the second argument, then error is assumed to be omitted and the string will be used for message instead. This can lead to easy-to-miss mistakes. Please read the example in assert.throws() carefully if using a string as the second argument gets considered.

assert.strictEqual(actual, expected[, message])#

• actual <any>
• expected <any>
• message <string> | <Error>

Tests strict equality between the actual and expected parameters as determined by Object.is().

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.strictEqual(1, 2);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected inputs to be strictly equal:
//
// 1 !== 2

assert.strictEqual(1, 1);
// OK

assert.strictEqual('Hello foobar', 'Hello World!');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected inputs to be strictly equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + 'Hello foobar'
// - 'Hello World!'
//          ^

const apples = 1;
const oranges = 2;
assert.strictEqual(apples, oranges, `apples ${apples} !== oranges ${oranges}`);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: apples 1 !== oranges 2

assert.strictEqual(1, '1', new TypeError('Inputs are not identical'));
// TypeError: Inputs are not identicalconst assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.strictEqual(1, 2);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected inputs to be strictly equal:
//
// 1 !== 2

assert.strictEqual(1, 1);
// OK

assert.strictEqual('Hello foobar', 'Hello World!');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Expected inputs to be strictly equal:
// + actual - expected
//
// + 'Hello foobar'
// - 'Hello World!'
//          ^

const apples = 1;
const oranges = 2;
assert.strictEqual(apples, oranges, `apples ${apples} !== oranges ${oranges}`);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: apples 1 !== oranges 2

assert.strictEqual(1, '1', new TypeError('Inputs are not identical'));
// TypeError: Inputs are not identicalcopy

If the values are not strictly equal, an AssertionError is thrown with a message property set equal to the value of the message parameter. If the message parameter is undefined, a default error message is assigned. If the message parameter is an instance of an Error then it will be thrown instead of the AssertionError.

assert.throws(fn[, error][, message])#

• fn <Function>
• error <RegExp> | <Function> | <Object> | <Error>
• message <string>

Expects the function fn to throw an error.

If specified, error can be a Class, RegExp, a validation function, a validation object where each property will be tested for strict deep equality, or an instance of error where each property will be tested for strict deep equality including the non-enumerable message and name properties. When using an object, it is also possible to use a regular expression, when validating against a string property. See below for examples.

If specified, message will be appended to the message provided by the AssertionError if the fn call fails to throw or in case the error validation fails.

Custom validation object/error instance:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

const err = new TypeError('Wrong value');
err.code = 404;
err.foo = 'bar';
err.info = {
  nested: true,
  baz: 'text',
};
err.reg = /abc/i;

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw err;
  },
  {
    name: 'TypeError',
    message: 'Wrong value',
    info: {
      nested: true,
      baz: 'text',
    },
    // Only properties on the validation object will be tested for.
    // Using nested objects requires all properties to be present. Otherwise
    // the validation is going to fail.
  },
);

// Using regular expressions to validate error properties:
assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw err;
  },
  {
    // The `name` and `message` properties are strings and using regular
    // expressions on those will match against the string. If they fail, an
    // error is thrown.
    name: /^TypeError$/,
    message: /Wrong/,
    foo: 'bar',
    info: {
      nested: true,
      // It is not possible to use regular expressions for nested properties!
      baz: 'text',
    },
    // The `reg` property contains a regular expression and only if the
    // validation object contains an identical regular expression, it is going
    // to pass.
    reg: /abc/i,
  },
);

// Fails due to the different `message` and `name` properties:
assert.throws(
  () => {
    const otherErr = new Error('Not found');
    // Copy all enumerable properties from `err` to `otherErr`.
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(err)) {
      otherErr[key] = value;
    }
    throw otherErr;
  },
  // The error's `message` and `name` properties will also be checked when using
  // an error as validation object.
  err,
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

const err = new TypeError('Wrong value');
err.code = 404;
err.foo = 'bar';
err.info = {
  nested: true,
  baz: 'text',
};
err.reg = /abc/i;

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw err;
  },
  {
    name: 'TypeError',
    message: 'Wrong value',
    info: {
      nested: true,
      baz: 'text',
    },
    // Only properties on the validation object will be tested for.
    // Using nested objects requires all properties to be present. Otherwise
    // the validation is going to fail.
  },
);

// Using regular expressions to validate error properties:
assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw err;
  },
  {
    // The `name` and `message` properties are strings and using regular
    // expressions on those will match against the string. If they fail, an
    // error is thrown.
    name: /^TypeError$/,
    message: /Wrong/,
    foo: 'bar',
    info: {
      nested: true,
      // It is not possible to use regular expressions for nested properties!
      baz: 'text',
    },
    // The `reg` property contains a regular expression and only if the
    // validation object contains an identical regular expression, it is going
    // to pass.
    reg: /abc/i,
  },
);

// Fails due to the different `message` and `name` properties:
assert.throws(
  () => {
    const otherErr = new Error('Not found');
    // Copy all enumerable properties from `err` to `otherErr`.
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(err)) {
      otherErr[key] = value;
    }
    throw otherErr;
  },
  // The error's `message` and `name` properties will also be checked when using
  // an error as validation object.
  err,
);copy

Validate instanceof using constructor:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw new Error('Wrong value');
  },
  Error,
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw new Error('Wrong value');
  },
  Error,
);copy

Validate error message using RegExp:

Using a regular expression runs .toString on the error object, and will therefore also include the error name.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw new Error('Wrong value');
  },
  /^Error: Wrong value$/,
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw new Error('Wrong value');
  },
  /^Error: Wrong value$/,
);copy

Custom error validation:

The function must return true to indicate all internal validations passed. It will otherwise fail with an AssertionError.

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw new Error('Wrong value');
  },
  (err) => {
    assert(err instanceof Error);
    assert(/value/.test(err));
    // Avoid returning anything from validation functions besides `true`.
    // Otherwise, it's not clear what part of the validation failed. Instead,
    // throw an error about the specific validation that failed (as done in this
    // example) and add as much helpful debugging information to that error as
    // possible.
    return true;
  },
  'unexpected error',
);const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

assert.throws(
  () => {
    throw new Error('Wrong value');
  },
  (err) => {
    assert(err instanceof Error);
    assert(/value/.test(err));
    // Avoid returning anything from validation functions besides `true`.
    // Otherwise, it's not clear what part of the validation failed. Instead,
    // throw an error about the specific validation that failed (as done in this
    // example) and add as much helpful debugging information to that error as
    // possible.
    return true;
  },
  'unexpected error',
);copy

error cannot be a string. If a string is provided as the second argument, then error is assumed to be omitted and the string will be used for message instead. This can lead to easy-to-miss mistakes. Using the same message as the thrown error message is going to result in an ERR_AMBIGUOUS_ARGUMENT error. Please read the example below carefully if using a string as the second argument gets considered:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';

function throwingFirst() {
  throw new Error('First');
}

function throwingSecond() {
  throw new Error('Second');
}

function notThrowing() {}

// The second argument is a string and the input function threw an Error.
// The first case will not throw as it does not match for the error message
// thrown by the input function!
assert.throws(throwingFirst, 'Second');
// In the next example the message has no benefit over the message from the
// error and since it is not clear if the user intended to actually match
// against the error message, Node.js throws an `ERR_AMBIGUOUS_ARGUMENT` error.
assert.throws(throwingSecond, 'Second');
// TypeError [ERR_AMBIGUOUS_ARGUMENT]

// The string is only used (as message) in case the function does not throw:
assert.throws(notThrowing, 'Second');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Missing expected exception: Second

// If it was intended to match for the error message do this instead:
// It does not throw because the error messages match.
assert.throws(throwingSecond, /Second$/);

// If the error message does not match, an AssertionError is thrown.
assert.throws(throwingFirst, /Second$/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]const assert = require('node:assert/strict');

function throwingFirst() {
  throw new Error('First');
}

function throwingSecond() {
  throw new Error('Second');
}

function notThrowing() {}

// The second argument is a string and the input function threw an Error.
// The first case will not throw as it does not match for the error message
// thrown by the input function!
assert.throws(throwingFirst, 'Second');
// In the next example the message has no benefit over the message from the
// error and since it is not clear if the user intended to actually match
// against the error message, Node.js throws an `ERR_AMBIGUOUS_ARGUMENT` error.
assert.throws(throwingSecond, 'Second');
// TypeError [ERR_AMBIGUOUS_ARGUMENT]

// The string is only used (as message) in case the function does not throw:
assert.throws(notThrowing, 'Second');
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]: Missing expected exception: Second

// If it was intended to match for the error message do this instead:
// It does not throw because the error messages match.
assert.throws(throwingSecond, /Second$/);

// If the error message does not match, an AssertionError is thrown.
assert.throws(throwingFirst, /Second$/);
// AssertionError [ERR_ASSERTION]copy

Due to the confusing error-prone notation, avoid a string as the second argument.

Introduction#

These classes are used to associate state and propagate it throughout callbacks and promise chains. They allow storing data throughout the lifetime of a web request or any other asynchronous duration. It is similar to thread-local storage in other languages.

The AsyncLocalStorage and AsyncResource classes are part of the node:async_hooks module:

import { AsyncLocalStorage, AsyncResource } from 'node:async_hooks';const { AsyncLocalStorage, AsyncResource } = require('node:async_hooks');copy

Class: AsyncLocalStorage#

This class creates stores that stay coherent through asynchronous operations.

While you can create your own implementation on top of the node:async_hooks module, AsyncLocalStorage should be preferred as it is a performant and memory safe implementation that involves significant optimizations that are non-obvious to implement.

The following example uses AsyncLocalStorage to build a simple logger that assigns IDs to incoming HTTP requests and includes them in messages logged within each request.

import http from 'node:http';
import { AsyncLocalStorage } from 'node:async_hooks';

const asyncLocalStorage = new AsyncLocalStorage();

function logWithId(msg) {
  const id = asyncLocalStorage.getStore();
  console.log(`${id !== undefined ? id : '-'}:`, msg);
}

let idSeq = 0;
http.createServer((req, res) => {
  asyncLocalStorage.run(idSeq++, () => {
    logWithId('start');
    // Imagine any chain of async operations here
    setImmediate(() => {
      logWithId('finish');
      res.end();
    });
  });
}).listen(8080);

http.get('http://localhost:8080');
http.get('http://localhost:8080');
// Prints:
//   0: start
//   1: start
//   0: finish
//   1: finishconst http = require('node:http');
const { AsyncLocalStorage } = require('node:async_hooks');

const asyncLocalStorage = new AsyncLocalStorage();

function logWithId(msg) {
  const id = asyncLocalStorage.getStore();
  console.log(`${id !== undefined ? id : '-'}:`, msg);
}

let idSeq = 0;
http.createServer((req, res) => {
  asyncLocalStorage.run(idSeq++, () => {
    logWithId('start');
    // Imagine any chain of async operations here
    setImmediate(() => {
      logWithId('finish');
      res.end();
    });
  });
}).listen(8080);

http.get('http://localhost:8080');
http.get('http://localhost:8080');
// Prints:
//   0: start
//   1: start
//   0: finish
//   1: finishcopy

Each instance of AsyncLocalStorage maintains an independent storage context. Multiple instances can safely exist simultaneously without risk of interfering with each other's data.

new AsyncLocalStorage()#

Creates a new instance of AsyncLocalStorage. Store is only provided within a run() call or after an enterWith() call.

Static method: AsyncLocalStorage.bind(fn)#

• fn <Function> The function to bind to the current execution context.
• Returns: <Function> A new function that calls fn within the captured execution context.

Binds the given function to the current execution context.

Static method: AsyncLocalStorage.snapshot()#

• Returns: <Function> A new function with the signature (fn: (...args) : R, ...args) : R.

Captures the current execution context and returns a function that accepts a function as an argument. Whenever the returned function is called, it calls the function passed to it within the captured context.

const asyncLocalStorage = new AsyncLocalStorage();
const runInAsyncScope = asyncLocalStorage.run(123, () => AsyncLocalStorage.snapshot());
const result = asyncLocalStorage.run(321, () => runInAsyncScope(() => asyncLocalStorage.getStore()));
console.log(result);  // returns 123 copy

AsyncLocalStorage.snapshot() can replace the use of AsyncResource for simple async context tracking purposes, for example:

class Foo {
  #runInAsyncScope = AsyncLocalStorage.snapshot();

  get() { return this.#runInAsyncScope(() => asyncLocalStorage.getStore()); }
}

const foo = asyncLocalStorage.run(123, () => new Foo());
console.log(asyncLocalStorage.run(321, () => foo.get())); // returns 123 copy

asyncLocalStorage.disable()#

Disables the instance of AsyncLocalStorage. All subsequent calls to asyncLocalStorage.getStore() will return undefined until asyncLocalStorage.run() or asyncLocalStorage.enterWith() is called again.

When calling asyncLocalStorage.disable(), all current contexts linked to the instance will be exited.

Calling asyncLocalStorage.disable() is required before the asyncLocalStorage can be garbage collected. This does not apply to stores provided by the asyncLocalStorage, as those objects are garbage collected along with the corresponding async resources.

Use this method when the asyncLocalStorage is not in use anymore in the current process.

asyncLocalStorage.getStore()#

• Returns: <any>

Returns the current store. If called outside of an asynchronous context initialized by calling asyncLocalStorage.run() or asyncLocalStorage.enterWith(), it returns undefined.

asyncLocalStorage.enterWith(store)#

• store <any>

Transitions into the context for the remainder of the current synchronous execution and then persists the store through any following asynchronous calls.

Example:

const store = { id: 1 };
// Replaces previous store with the given store object
asyncLocalStorage.enterWith(store);
asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the store object
someAsyncOperation(() => {
  asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the same object
}); copy

This transition will continue for the entire synchronous execution. This means that if, for example, the context is entered within an event handler subsequent event handlers will also run within that context unless specifically bound to another context with an AsyncResource. That is why run() should be preferred over enterWith() unless there are strong reasons to use the latter method.

const store = { id: 1 };

emitter.on('my-event', () => {
  asyncLocalStorage.enterWith(store);
});
emitter.on('my-event', () => {
  asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the same object
});

asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns undefined
emitter.emit('my-event');
asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the same object copy

asyncLocalStorage.run(store, callback[, ...args])#

• store <any>
• callback <Function>
• ...args <any>

Runs a function synchronously within a context and returns its return value. The store is not accessible outside of the callback function. The store is accessible to any asynchronous operations created within the callback.

The optional args are passed to the callback function.

If the callback function throws an error, the error is thrown by run() too. The stacktrace is not impacted by this call and the context is exited.

Example:

const store = { id: 2 };
try {
  asyncLocalStorage.run(store, () => {
    asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the store object
    setTimeout(() => {
      asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the store object
    }, 200);
    throw new Error();
  });
} catch (e) {
  asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns undefined
  // The error will be caught here
} copy

asyncLocalStorage.exit(callback[, ...args])#

• callback <Function>
• ...args <any>

Runs a function synchronously outside of a context and returns its return value. The store is not accessible within the callback function or the asynchronous operations created within the callback. Any getStore() call done within the callback function will always return undefined.

The optional args are passed to the callback function.

If the callback function throws an error, the error is thrown by exit() too. The stacktrace is not impacted by this call and the context is re-entered.

Example:

// Within a call to run
try {
  asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the store object or value
  asyncLocalStorage.exit(() => {
    asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns undefined
    throw new Error();
  });
} catch (e) {
  asyncLocalStorage.getStore(); // Returns the same object or value
  // The error will be caught here
} copy

Usage with async/await#

If, within an async function, only one await call is to run within a context, the following pattern should be used:

async function fn() {
  await asyncLocalStorage.run(new Map(), () => {
    asyncLocalStorage.getStore().set('key', value);
    return foo(); // The return value of foo will be awaited
  });
} copy

In this example, the store is only available in the callback function and the functions called by foo. Outside of run, calling getStore will return undefined.

Troubleshooting: Context loss#

In most cases, AsyncLocalStorage works without issues. In rare situations, the current store is lost in one of the asynchronous operations.

If your code is callback-based, it is enough to promisify it with util.promisify() so it starts working with native promises.

If you need to use a callback-based API or your code assumes a custom thenable implementation, use the AsyncResource class to associate the asynchronous operation with the correct execution context. Find the function call responsible for the context loss by logging the content of asyncLocalStorage.getStore() after the calls you suspect are responsible for the loss. When the code logs undefined, the last callback called is probably responsible for the context loss.

Class: AsyncResource#

The class AsyncResource is designed to be extended by the embedder's async resources. Using this, users can easily trigger the lifetime events of their own resources.

The init hook will trigger when an AsyncResource is instantiated.

The following is an overview of the AsyncResource API.

import { AsyncResource, executionAsyncId } from 'node:async_hooks';

// AsyncResource() is meant to be extended. Instantiating a
// new AsyncResource() also triggers init. If triggerAsyncId is omitted then
// async_hook.executionAsyncId() is used.
const asyncResource = new AsyncResource(
  type, { triggerAsyncId: executionAsyncId(), requireManualDestroy: false },
);

// Run a function in the execution context of the resource. This will
// * establish the context of the resource
// * trigger the AsyncHooks before callbacks
// * call the provided function `fn` with the supplied arguments
// * trigger the AsyncHooks after callbacks
// * restore the original execution context
asyncResource.runInAsyncScope(fn, thisArg, ...args);

// Call AsyncHooks destroy callbacks.
asyncResource.emitDestroy();

// Return the unique ID assigned to the AsyncResource instance.
asyncResource.asyncId();

// Return the trigger ID for the AsyncResource instance.
asyncResource.triggerAsyncId();const { AsyncResource, executionAsyncId } = require('node:async_hooks');

// AsyncResource() is meant to be extended. Instantiating a
// new AsyncResource() also triggers init. If triggerAsyncId is omitted then
// async_hook.executionAsyncId() is used.
const asyncResource = new AsyncResource(
  type, { triggerAsyncId: executionAsyncId(), requireManualDestroy: false },
);

// Run a function in the execution context of the resource. This will
// * establish the context of the resource
// * trigger the AsyncHooks before callbacks
// * call the provided function `fn` with the supplied arguments
// * trigger the AsyncHooks after callbacks
// * restore the original execution context
asyncResource.runInAsyncScope(fn, thisArg, ...args);

// Call AsyncHooks destroy callbacks.
asyncResource.emitDestroy();

// Return the unique ID assigned to the AsyncResource instance.
asyncResource.asyncId();

// Return the trigger ID for the AsyncResource instance.
asyncResource.triggerAsyncId();copy

new AsyncResource(type[, options])#

• type <string> The type of async event.
• options <Object>
  • triggerAsyncId <number> The ID of the execution context that created this async event. Default: executionAsyncId().
  • requireManualDestroy <boolean> If set to true, disables emitDestroy when the object is garbage collected. This usually does not need to be set (even if emitDestroy is called manually), unless the resource's asyncId is retrieved and the sensitive API's emitDestroy is called with it. When set to false, the emitDestroy call on garbage collection will only take place if there is at least one active destroy hook. Default: false.

Example usage:

class DBQuery extends AsyncResource {
  constructor(db) {
    super('DBQuery');
    this.db = db;
  }

  getInfo(query, callback) {
    this.db.get(query, (err, data) => {
      this.runInAsyncScope(callback, null, err, data);
    });
  }

  close() {
    this.db = null;
    this.emitDestroy();
  }
} copy

Static method: AsyncResource.bind(fn[, type[, thisArg]])#

• fn <Function> The function to bind to the current execution context.
• type <string> An optional name to associate with the underlying AsyncResource.
• thisArg <any>

Binds the given function to the current execution context.

asyncResource.bind(fn[, thisArg])#

• fn <Function> The function to bind to the current AsyncResource.
• thisArg <any>

Binds the given function to execute to this AsyncResource's scope.

asyncResource.runInAsyncScope(fn[, thisArg, ...args])#

• fn <Function> The function to call in the execution context of this async resource.
• thisArg <any> The receiver to be used for the function call.
• ...args <any> Optional arguments to pass to the function.

Call the provided function with the provided arguments in the execution context of the async resource. This will establish the context, trigger the AsyncHooks before callbacks, call the function, trigger the AsyncHooks after callbacks, and then restore the original execution context.

asyncResource.emitDestroy()#

• Returns: <AsyncResource> A reference to asyncResource.

Call all destroy hooks. This should only ever be called once. An error will be thrown if it is called more than once. This must be manually called. If the resource is left to be collected by the GC then the destroy hooks will never be called.

asyncResource.asyncId()#

• Returns: <number> The unique asyncId assigned to the resource.

asyncResource.triggerAsyncId()#

• Returns: <number> The same triggerAsyncId that is passed to the AsyncResource constructor.

Using AsyncResource for a Worker thread pool#

The following example shows how to use the AsyncResource class to properly provide async tracking for a Worker pool. Other resource pools, such as database connection pools, can follow a similar model.

Assuming that the task is adding two numbers, using a file named task_processor.js with the following content:

import { parentPort } from 'node:worker_threads';
parentPort.on('message', (task) => {
  parentPort.postMessage(task.a + task.b);
});const { parentPort } = require('node:worker_threads');
parentPort.on('message', (task) => {
  parentPort.postMessage(task.a + task.b);
});copy

a Worker pool around it could use the following structure:

import { AsyncResource } from 'node:async_hooks';
import { EventEmitter } from 'node:events';
import path from 'node:path';
import { Worker } from 'node:worker_threads';

const kTaskInfo = Symbol('kTaskInfo');
const kWorkerFreedEvent = Symbol('kWorkerFreedEvent');

class WorkerPoolTaskInfo extends AsyncResource {
  constructor(callback) {
    super('WorkerPoolTaskInfo');
    this.callback = callback;
  }

  done(err, result) {
    this.runInAsyncScope(this.callback, null, err, result);
    this.emitDestroy();  // `TaskInfo`s are used only once.
  }
}

export default class WorkerPool extends EventEmitter {
  constructor(numThreads) {
    super();
    this.numThreads = numThreads;
    this.workers = [];
    this.freeWorkers = [];
    this.tasks = [];

    for (let i = 0; i < numThreads; i++)
      this.addNewWorker();

    // Any time the kWorkerFreedEvent is emitted, dispatch
    // the next task pending in the queue, if any.
    this.on(kWorkerFreedEvent, () => {
      if (this.tasks.length > 0) {
        const { task, callback } = this.tasks.shift();
        this.runTask(task, callback);
      }
    });
  }

  addNewWorker() {
    const worker = new Worker(new URL('task_processor.js', import.meta.url));
    worker.on('message', (result) => {
      // In case of success: Call the callback that was passed to `runTask`,
      // remove the `TaskInfo` associated with the Worker, and mark it as free
      // again.
      worker[kTaskInfo].done(null, result);
      worker[kTaskInfo] = null;
      this.freeWorkers.push(worker);
      this.emit(kWorkerFreedEvent);
    });
    worker.on('error', (err) => {
      // In case of an uncaught exception: Call the callback that was passed to
      // `runTask` with the error.
      if (worker[kTaskInfo])
        worker[kTaskInfo].done(err, null);
      else
        this.emit('error', err);
      // Remove the worker from the list and start a new Worker to replace the
      // current one.
      this.workers.splice(this.workers.indexOf(worker), 1);
      this.addNewWorker();
    });
    this.workers.push(worker);
    this.freeWorkers.push(worker);
    this.emit(kWorkerFreedEvent);
  }

  runTask(task, callback) {
    if (this.freeWorkers.length === 0) {
      // No free threads, wait until a worker thread becomes free.
      this.tasks.push({ task, callback });
      return;
    }

    const worker = this.freeWorkers.pop();
    worker[kTaskInfo] = new WorkerPoolTaskInfo(callback);
    worker.postMessage(task);
  }

  close() {
    for (const worker of this.workers) worker.terminate();
  }
}const { AsyncResource } = require('node:async_hooks');
const { EventEmitter } = require('node:events');
const path = require('node:path');
const { Worker } = require('node:worker_threads');

const kTaskInfo = Symbol('kTaskInfo');
const kWorkerFreedEvent = Symbol('kWorkerFreedEvent');

class WorkerPoolTaskInfo extends AsyncResource {
  constructor(callback) {
    super('WorkerPoolTaskInfo');
    this.callback = callback;
  }

  done(err, result) {
    this.runInAsyncScope(this.callback, null, err, result);
    this.emitDestroy();  // `TaskInfo`s are used only once.
  }
}

class WorkerPool extends EventEmitter {
  constructor(numThreads) {
    super();
    this.numThreads = numThreads;
    this.workers = [];
    this.freeWorkers = [];
    this.tasks = [];

    for (let i = 0; i < numThreads; i++)
      this.addNewWorker();

    // Any time the kWorkerFreedEvent is emitted, dispatch
    // the next task pending in the queue, if any.
    this.on(kWorkerFreedEvent, () => {
      if (this.tasks.length > 0) {
        const { task, callback } = this.tasks.shift();
        this.runTask(task, callback);
      }
    });
  }

  addNewWorker() {
    const worker = new Worker(path.resolve(__dirname, 'task_processor.js'));
    worker.on('message', (result) => {
      // In case of success: Call the callback that was passed to `runTask`,
      // remove the `TaskInfo` associated with the Worker, and mark it as free
      // again.
      worker[kTaskInfo].done(null, result);
      worker[kTaskInfo] = null;
      this.freeWorkers.push(worker);
      this.emit(kWorkerFreedEvent);
    });
    worker.on('error', (err) => {
      // In case of an uncaught exception: Call the callback that was passed to
      // `runTask` with the error.
      if (worker[kTaskInfo])
        worker[kTaskInfo].done(err, null);
      else
        this.emit('error', err);
      // Remove the worker from the list and start a new Worker to replace the
      // current one.
      this.workers.splice(this.workers.indexOf(worker), 1);
      this.addNewWorker();
    });
    this.workers.push(worker);
    this.freeWorkers.push(worker);
    this.emit(kWorkerFreedEvent);
  }

  runTask(task, callback) {
    if (this.freeWorkers.length === 0) {
      // No free threads, wait until a worker thread becomes free.
      this.tasks.push({ task, callback });
      return;
    }

    const worker = this.freeWorkers.pop();
    worker[kTaskInfo] = new WorkerPoolTaskInfo(callback);
    worker.postMessage(task);
  }

  close() {
    for (const worker of this.workers) worker.terminate();
  }
}

module.exports = WorkerPool;copy

Without the explicit tracking added by the WorkerPoolTaskInfo objects, it would appear that the callbacks are associated with the individual Worker objects. However, the creation of the Workers is not associated with the creation of the tasks and does not provide information about when tasks were scheduled.

This pool could be used as follows:

import WorkerPool from './worker_pool.js';
import os from 'node:os';

const pool = new WorkerPool(os.availableParallelism());

let finished = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  pool.runTask({ a: 42, b: 100 }, (err, result) => {
    console.log(i, err, result);
    if (++finished === 10)
      pool.close();
  });
}const WorkerPool = require('./worker_pool.js');
const os = require('node:os');

const pool = new WorkerPool(os.availableParallelism());

let finished = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  pool.runTask({ a: 42, b: 100 }, (err, result) => {
    console.log(i, err, result);
    if (++finished === 10)
      pool.close();
  });
}copy

Integrating AsyncResource with EventEmitter#

Event listeners triggered by an EventEmitter may be run in a different execution context than the one that was active when eventEmitter.on() was called.

The following example shows how to use the AsyncResource class to properly associate an event listener with the correct execution context. The same approach can be applied to a Stream or a similar event-driven class.

import { createServer } from 'node:http';
import { AsyncResource, executionAsyncId } from 'node:async_hooks';

const server = createServer((req, res) => {
  req.on('close', AsyncResource.bind(() => {
    // Execution context is bound to the current outer scope.
  }));
  req.on('close', () => {
    // Execution context is bound to the scope that caused 'close' to emit.
  });
  res.end();
}).listen(3000);const { createServer } = require('node:http');
const { AsyncResource, executionAsyncId } = require('node:async_hooks');

const server = createServer((req, res) => {
  req.on('close', AsyncResource.bind(() => {
    // Execution context is bound to the current outer scope.
  }));
  req.on('close', () => {
    // Execution context is bound to the scope that caused 'close' to emit.
  });
  res.end();
}).listen(3000);copy

Terminology#

An asynchronous resource represents an object with an associated callback. This callback may be called multiple times, such as the 'connection' event in net.createServer(), or just a single time like in fs.open(). A resource can also be closed before the callback is called. AsyncHook does not explicitly distinguish between these different cases but will represent them as the abstract concept that is a resource.

If Workers are used, each thread has an independent async_hooks interface, and each thread will use a new set of async IDs.

Overview#

Following is a simple overview of the public API.

import async_hooks from 'node:async_hooks';

// Return the ID of the current execution context.
const eid = async_hooks.executionAsyncId();

// Return the ID of the handle responsible for triggering the callback of the
// current execution scope to call.
const tid = async_hooks.triggerAsyncId();

// Create a new AsyncHook instance. All of these callbacks are optional.
const asyncHook =
    async_hooks.createHook({ init, before, after, destroy, promiseResolve });

// Allow callbacks of this AsyncHook instance to call. This is not an implicit
// action after running the constructor, and must be explicitly run to begin
// executing callbacks.
asyncHook.enable();

// Disable listening for new asynchronous events.
asyncHook.disable();

//
// The following are the callbacks that can be passed to createHook().
//

// init() is called during object construction. The resource may not have
// completed construction when this callback runs. Therefore, all fields of the
// resource referenced by "asyncId" may not have been populated.
function init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { }

// before() is called just before the resource's callback is called. It can be
// called 0-N times for handles (such as TCPWrap), and will be called exactly 1
// time for requests (such as FSReqCallback).
function before(asyncId) { }

// after() is called just after the resource's callback has finished.
function after(asyncId) { }

// destroy() is called when the resource is destroyed.
function destroy(asyncId) { }

// promiseResolve() is called only for promise resources, when the
// resolve() function passed to the Promise constructor is invoked
// (either directly or through other means of resolving a promise).
function promiseResolve(asyncId) { }const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');

// Return the ID of the current execution context.
const eid = async_hooks.executionAsyncId();

// Return the ID of the handle responsible for triggering the callback of the
// current execution scope to call.
const tid = async_hooks.triggerAsyncId();

// Create a new AsyncHook instance. All of these callbacks are optional.
const asyncHook =
    async_hooks.createHook({ init, before, after, destroy, promiseResolve });

// Allow callbacks of this AsyncHook instance to call. This is not an implicit
// action after running the constructor, and must be explicitly run to begin
// executing callbacks.
asyncHook.enable();

// Disable listening for new asynchronous events.
asyncHook.disable();

//
// The following are the callbacks that can be passed to createHook().
//

// init() is called during object construction. The resource may not have
// completed construction when this callback runs. Therefore, all fields of the
// resource referenced by "asyncId" may not have been populated.
function init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { }

// before() is called just before the resource's callback is called. It can be
// called 0-N times for handles (such as TCPWrap), and will be called exactly 1
// time for requests (such as FSReqCallback).
function before(asyncId) { }

// after() is called just after the resource's callback has finished.
function after(asyncId) { }

// destroy() is called when the resource is destroyed.
function destroy(asyncId) { }

// promiseResolve() is called only for promise resources, when the
// resolve() function passed to the Promise constructor is invoked
// (either directly or through other means of resolving a promise).
function promiseResolve(asyncId) { }copy

async_hooks.createHook(callbacks)#

• callbacks <Object> The Hook Callbacks to register
  • init <Function> The init callback.
  • before <Function> The before callback.
  • after <Function> The after callback.
  • destroy <Function> The destroy callback.
  • promiseResolve <Function> The promiseResolve callback.
• Returns: <AsyncHook> Instance used for disabling and enabling hooks

Registers functions to be called for different lifetime events of each async operation.

The callbacks init()/before()/after()/destroy() are called for the respective asynchronous event during a resource's lifetime.

All callbacks are optional. For example, if only resource cleanup needs to be tracked, then only the destroy callback needs to be passed. The specifics of all functions that can be passed to callbacks is in the Hook Callbacks section.

import { createHook } from 'node:async_hooks';

const asyncHook = createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { },
  destroy(asyncId) { },
});const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');

const asyncHook = async_hooks.createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { },
  destroy(asyncId) { },
});copy

The callbacks will be inherited via the prototype chain:

class MyAsyncCallbacks {
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) { }
  destroy(asyncId) {}
}

class MyAddedCallbacks extends MyAsyncCallbacks {
  before(asyncId) { }
  after(asyncId) { }
}

const asyncHook = async_hooks.createHook(new MyAddedCallbacks()); copy

Because promises are asynchronous resources whose lifecycle is tracked via the async hooks mechanism, the init(), before(), after(), and destroy() callbacks must not be async functions that return promises.

Error handling#

If any AsyncHook callbacks throw, the application will print the stack trace and exit. The exit path does follow that of an uncaught exception, but all 'uncaughtException' listeners are removed, thus forcing the process to exit. The 'exit' callbacks will still be called unless the application is run with --abort-on-uncaught-exception, in which case a stack trace will be printed and the application exits, leaving a core file.

The reason for this error handling behavior is that these callbacks are running at potentially volatile points in an object's lifetime, for example during class construction and destruction. Because of this, it is deemed necessary to bring down the process quickly in order to prevent an unintentional abort in the future. This is subject to change in the future if a comprehensive analysis is performed to ensure an exception can follow the normal control flow without unintentional side effects.

Printing in AsyncHook callbacks#

Because printing to the console is an asynchronous operation, console.log() will cause AsyncHook callbacks to be called. Using console.log() or similar asynchronous operations inside an AsyncHook callback function will cause an infinite recursion. An easy solution to this when debugging is to use a synchronous logging operation such as fs.writeFileSync(file, msg, flag). This will print to the file and will not invoke AsyncHook recursively because it is synchronous.

import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
import { format } from 'node:util';

function debug(...args) {
  // Use a function like this one when debugging inside an AsyncHook callback
  writeFileSync('log.out', `${format(...args)}\n`, { flag: 'a' });
}const fs = require('node:fs');
const util = require('node:util');

function debug(...args) {
  // Use a function like this one when debugging inside an AsyncHook callback
  fs.writeFileSync('log.out', `${util.format(...args)}\n`, { flag: 'a' });
}copy

If an asynchronous operation is needed for logging, it is possible to keep track of what caused the asynchronous operation using the information provided by AsyncHook itself. The logging should then be skipped when it was the logging itself that caused the AsyncHook callback to be called. By doing this, the otherwise infinite recursion is broken.

Class: AsyncHook#

The class AsyncHook exposes an interface for tracking lifetime events of asynchronous operations.

asyncHook.enable()#

• Returns: <AsyncHook> A reference to asyncHook.

Enable the callbacks for a given AsyncHook instance. If no callbacks are provided, enabling is a no-op.

The AsyncHook instance is disabled by default. If the AsyncHook instance should be enabled immediately after creation, the following pattern can be used.

import { createHook } from 'node:async_hooks';

const hook = createHook(callbacks).enable();const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');

const hook = async_hooks.createHook(callbacks).enable();copy

asyncHook.disable()#

• Returns: <AsyncHook> A reference to asyncHook.

Disable the callbacks for a given AsyncHook instance from the global pool of AsyncHook callbacks to be executed. Once a hook has been disabled it will not be called again until enabled.

For API consistency disable() also returns the AsyncHook instance.

Hook callbacks#

Key events in the lifetime of asynchronous events have been categorized into four areas: instantiation, before/after the callback is called, and when the instance is destroyed.

init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource)#

• asyncId <number> A unique ID for the async resource.
• type <string> The type of the async resource.
• triggerAsyncId <number> The unique ID of the async resource in whose execution context this async resource was created.
• resource <Object> Reference to the resource representing the async operation, needs to be released during destroy.

Called when a class is constructed that has the possibility to emit an asynchronous event. This does not mean the instance must call before/after before destroy is called, only that the possibility exists.

This behavior can be observed by doing something like opening a resource then closing it before the resource can be used. The following snippet demonstrates this.

import { createServer } from 'node:net';

createServer().listen(function() { this.close(); });
// OR
clearTimeout(setTimeout(() => {}, 10));require('node:net').createServer().listen(function() { this.close(); });
// OR
clearTimeout(setTimeout(() => {}, 10));copy

Every new resource is assigned an ID that is unique within the scope of the current Node.js instance.

type#

The type is a string identifying the type of resource that caused init to be called. Generally, it will correspond to the name of the resource's constructor.

The type of resources created by Node.js itself can change in any Node.js release. Valid values include TLSWRAP, TCPWRAP, TCPSERVERWRAP, GETADDRINFOREQWRAP, FSREQCALLBACK, Microtask, and Timeout. Inspect the source code of the Node.js version used to get the full list.

Furthermore users of AsyncResource create async resources independent of Node.js itself.

There is also the PROMISE resource type, which is used to track Promise instances and asynchronous work scheduled by them.

Users are able to define their own type when using the public embedder API.

It is possible to have type name collisions. Embedders are encouraged to use unique prefixes, such as the npm package name, to prevent collisions when listening to the hooks.

triggerAsyncId#

triggerAsyncId is the asyncId of the resource that caused (or "triggered") the new resource to initialize and that caused init to call. This is different from async_hooks.executionAsyncId() that only shows when a resource was created, while triggerAsyncId shows why a resource was created.

The following is a simple demonstration of triggerAsyncId:

import { createHook, executionAsyncId } from 'node:async_hooks';
import { stdout } from 'node:process';
import net from 'node:net';
import fs from 'node:fs';

createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId) {
    const eid = executionAsyncId();
    fs.writeSync(
      stdout.fd,
      `${type}(${asyncId}): trigger: ${triggerAsyncId} execution: ${eid}\n`);
  },
}).enable();

net.createServer((conn) => {}).listen(8080);const { createHook, executionAsyncId } = require('node:async_hooks');
const { stdout } = require('node:process');
const net = require('node:net');
const fs = require('node:fs');

createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId) {
    const eid = executionAsyncId();
    fs.writeSync(
      stdout.fd,
      `${type}(${asyncId}): trigger: ${triggerAsyncId} execution: ${eid}\n`);
  },
}).enable();

net.createServer((conn) => {}).listen(8080);copy

Output when hitting the server with nc localhost 8080:

TCPSERVERWRAP(5): trigger: 1 execution: 1
TCPWRAP(7): trigger: 5 execution: 0 copy

The TCPSERVERWRAP is the server which receives the connections.

The TCPWRAP is the new connection from the client. When a new connection is made, the TCPWrap instance is immediately constructed. This happens outside of any JavaScript stack. (An executionAsyncId() of 0 means that it is being executed from C++ with no JavaScript stack above it.) With only that information, it would be impossible to link resources together in terms of what caused them to be created, so triggerAsyncId is given the task of propagating what resource is responsible for the new resource's existence.

resource#

resource is an object that represents the actual async resource that has been initialized. The API to access the object may be specified by the creator of the resource. Resources created by Node.js itself are internal and may change at any time. Therefore no API is specified for these.

In some cases the resource object is reused for performance reasons, it is thus not safe to use it as a key in a WeakMap or add properties to it.

Asynchronous context example#

The context tracking use case is covered by the stable API AsyncLocalStorage. This example only illustrates async hooks operation but AsyncLocalStorage fits better to this use case.

The following is an example with additional information about the calls to init between the before and after calls, specifically what the callback to listen() will look like. The output formatting is slightly more elaborate to make calling context easier to see.

import async_hooks from 'node:async_hooks';
import fs from 'node:fs';
import net from 'node:net';
import { stdout } from 'node:process';
const { fd } = stdout;

let indent = 0;
async_hooks.createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId) {
    const eid = async_hooks.executionAsyncId();
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(
      fd,
      `${indentStr}${type}(${asyncId}):` +
      ` trigger: ${triggerAsyncId} execution: ${eid}\n`);
  },
  before(asyncId) {
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(fd, `${indentStr}before:  ${asyncId}\n`);
    indent += 2;
  },
  after(asyncId) {
    indent -= 2;
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(fd, `${indentStr}after:  ${asyncId}\n`);
  },
  destroy(asyncId) {
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(fd, `${indentStr}destroy:  ${asyncId}\n`);
  },
}).enable();

net.createServer(() => {}).listen(8080, () => {
  // Let's wait 10ms before logging the server started.
  setTimeout(() => {
    console.log('>>>', async_hooks.executionAsyncId());
  }, 10);
});const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');
const fs = require('node:fs');
const net = require('node:net');
const { fd } = process.stdout;

let indent = 0;
async_hooks.createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId) {
    const eid = async_hooks.executionAsyncId();
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(
      fd,
      `${indentStr}${type}(${asyncId}):` +
      ` trigger: ${triggerAsyncId} execution: ${eid}\n`);
  },
  before(asyncId) {
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(fd, `${indentStr}before:  ${asyncId}\n`);
    indent += 2;
  },
  after(asyncId) {
    indent -= 2;
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(fd, `${indentStr}after:  ${asyncId}\n`);
  },
  destroy(asyncId) {
    const indentStr = ' '.repeat(indent);
    fs.writeSync(fd, `${indentStr}destroy:  ${asyncId}\n`);
  },
}).enable();

net.createServer(() => {}).listen(8080, () => {
  // Let's wait 10ms before logging the server started.
  setTimeout(() => {
    console.log('>>>', async_hooks.executionAsyncId());
  }, 10);
});copy

Output from only starting the server:

TCPSERVERWRAP(5): trigger: 1 execution: 1
TickObject(6): trigger: 5 execution: 1
before:  6
  Timeout(7): trigger: 6 execution: 6
after:   6
destroy: 6
before:  7
>>> 7
  TickObject(8): trigger: 7 execution: 7
after:   7
before:  8
after:   8 copy

As illustrated in the example, executionAsyncId() and execution each specify the value of the current execution context; which is delineated by calls to before and after.

Only using execution to graph resource allocation results in the following:

  root(1)
     ^
     |
TickObject(6)
     ^
     |
 Timeout(7) copy

The TCPSERVERWRAP is not part of this graph, even though it was the reason for console.log() being called. This is because binding to a port without a host name is a synchronous operation, but to maintain a completely asynchronous API the user's callback is placed in a process.nextTick(). Which is why TickObject is present in the output and is a 'parent' for .listen() callback.

The graph only shows when a resource was created, not why, so to track the why use triggerAsyncId. Which can be represented with the following graph:

 bootstrap(1)
     |
     ˅
TCPSERVERWRAP(5)
     |
     ˅
 TickObject(6)
     |
     ˅
  Timeout(7) copy

before(asyncId)#

• asyncId <number>

When an asynchronous operation is initiated (such as a TCP server receiving a new connection) or completes (such as writing data to disk) a callback is called to notify the user. The before callback is called just before said callback is executed. asyncId is the unique identifier assigned to the resource about to execute the callback.

The before callback will be called 0 to N times. The before callback will typically be called 0 times if the asynchronous operation was cancelled or, for example, if no connections are received by a TCP server. Persistent asynchronous resources like a TCP server will typically call the before callback multiple times, while other operations like fs.open() will call it only once.

after(asyncId)#

• asyncId <number>

Called immediately after the callback specified in before is completed.

If an uncaught exception occurs during execution of the callback, then after will run after the 'uncaughtException' event is emitted or a domain's handler runs.

destroy(asyncId)#

• asyncId <number>

Called after the resource corresponding to asyncId is destroyed. It is also called asynchronously from the embedder API emitDestroy().

Some resources depend on garbage collection for cleanup, so if a reference is made to the resource object passed to init it is possible that destroy will never be called, causing a memory leak in the application. If the resource does not depend on garbage collection, then this will not be an issue.

Using the destroy hook results in additional overhead because it enables tracking of Promise instances via the garbage collector.

promiseResolve(asyncId)#

• asyncId <number>

Called when the resolve function passed to the Promise constructor is invoked (either directly or through other means of resolving a promise).

resolve() does not do any observable synchronous work.

The Promise is not necessarily fulfilled or rejected at this point if the Promise was resolved by assuming the state of another Promise.

new Promise((resolve) => resolve(true)).then((a) => {}); copy

calls the following callbacks:

init for PROMISE with id 5, trigger id: 1
  promise resolve 5      # corresponds to resolve(true)
init for PROMISE with id 6, trigger id: 5  # the Promise returned by then()
  before 6               # the then() callback is entered
  promise resolve 6      # the then() callback resolves the promise by returning
  after 6 copy

async_hooks.executionAsyncResource()#

• Returns: <Object> The resource representing the current execution. Useful to store data within the resource.

Resource objects returned by executionAsyncResource() are most often internal Node.js handle objects with undocumented APIs. Using any functions or properties on the object is likely to crash your application and should be avoided.

Using executionAsyncResource() in the top-level execution context will return an empty object as there is no handle or request object to use, but having an object representing the top-level can be helpful.

import { open } from 'node:fs';
import { executionAsyncId, executionAsyncResource } from 'node:async_hooks';

console.log(executionAsyncId(), executionAsyncResource());  // 1 {}
open(new URL(import.meta.url), 'r', (err, fd) => {
  console.log(executionAsyncId(), executionAsyncResource());  // 7 FSReqWrap
});const { open } = require('node:fs');
const { executionAsyncId, executionAsyncResource } = require('node:async_hooks');

console.log(executionAsyncId(), executionAsyncResource());  // 1 {}
open(__filename, 'r', (err, fd) => {
  console.log(executionAsyncId(), executionAsyncResource());  // 7 FSReqWrap
});copy

This can be used to implement continuation local storage without the use of a tracking Map to store the metadata:

import { createServer } from 'node:http';
import {
  executionAsyncId,
  executionAsyncResource,
  createHook,
} from 'node:async_hooks';
const sym = Symbol('state'); // Private symbol to avoid pollution

createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) {
    const cr = executionAsyncResource();
    if (cr) {
      resource[sym] = cr[sym];
    }
  },
}).enable();

const server = createServer((req, res) => {
  executionAsyncResource()[sym] = { state: req.url };
  setTimeout(function() {
    res.end(JSON.stringify(executionAsyncResource()[sym]));
  }, 100);
}).listen(3000);const { createServer } = require('node:http');
const {
  executionAsyncId,
  executionAsyncResource,
  createHook,
} = require('node:async_hooks');
const sym = Symbol('state'); // Private symbol to avoid pollution

createHook({
  init(asyncId, type, triggerAsyncId, resource) {
    const cr = executionAsyncResource();
    if (cr) {
      resource[sym] = cr[sym];
    }
  },
}).enable();

const server = createServer((req, res) => {
  executionAsyncResource()[sym] = { state: req.url };
  setTimeout(function() {
    res.end(JSON.stringify(executionAsyncResource()[sym]));
  }, 100);
}).listen(3000);copy

async_hooks.executionAsyncId()#

• Returns: <number> The asyncId of the current execution context. Useful to track when something calls.

import { executionAsyncId } from 'node:async_hooks';
import fs from 'node:fs';

console.log(executionAsyncId());  // 1 - bootstrap
const path = '.';
fs.open(path, 'r', (err, fd) => {
  console.log(executionAsyncId());  // 6 - open()
});const async_hooks = require('node:async_hooks');
const fs = require('node:fs');

console.log(async_hooks.executionAsyncId());  // 1 - bootstrap
const path = '.';
fs.open(path, 'r', (err, fd) => {
  console.log(async_hooks.executionAsyncId());  // 6 - open()
});copy

The ID returned from executionAsyncId() is related to execution timing, not causality (which is covered by triggerAsyncId()):

const server = net.createServer((conn) => {
  // Returns the ID of the server, not of the new connection, because the
  // callback runs in the execution scope of the server's MakeCallback().
  async_hooks.executionAsyncId();

}).listen(port, () => {
  // Returns the ID of a TickObject (process.nextTick()) because all
  // callbacks passed to .listen() are wrapped in a nextTick().
  async_hooks.executionAsyncId();
}); copy

Promise contexts may not get precise executionAsyncIds by default. See the section on promise execution tracking.

async_hooks.triggerAsyncId()#

• Returns: <number> The ID of the resource responsible for calling the callback that is currently being executed.

const server = net.createServer((conn) => {
  // The resource that caused (or triggered) this callback to be called
  // was that of the new connection. Thus the return value of triggerAsyncId()
  // is the asyncId of "conn".
  async_hooks.triggerAsyncId();

}).listen(port, () => {
  // Even though all callbacks passed to .listen() are wrapped in a nextTick()
  // the callback itself exists because the call to the server's .listen()
  // was made. So the return value would be the ID of the server.
  async_hooks.triggerAsyncId();
}); copy

Promise contexts may not get valid triggerAsyncIds by default. See the section on promise execution tracking.

async_hooks.asyncWrapProviders#

• Returns: A map of provider types to the corresponding numeric id. This map contains all the event types that might be emitted by the async_hooks.init() event.

This feature suppresses the deprecated usage of process.binding('async_wrap').Providers. See: DEP0111

Promise execution tracking#

By default, promise executions are not assigned asyncIds due to the relatively expensive nature of the promise introspection API provided by V8. This means that programs using promises or async/await will not get correct execution and trigger ids for promise callback contexts by default.

import { executionAsyncId, triggerAsyncId } from 'node:async_hooks';

Promise.resolve(1729).then(() => {
  console.log(`eid ${executionAsyncId()} tid ${triggerAsyncId()}`);
});
// produces:
// eid 1 tid 0const { executionAsyncId, triggerAsyncId } = require('node:async_hooks');

Promise.resolve(1729).then(() => {
  console.log(`eid ${executionAsyncId()} tid ${triggerAsyncId()}`);
});
// produces:
// eid 1 tid 0copy

Observe that the then() callback claims to have executed in the context of the outer scope even though there was an asynchronous hop involved. Also, the triggerAsyncId value is 0, which means that we are missing context about the resource that caused (triggered) the then() callback to be executed.

Installing async hooks via async_hooks.createHook enables promise execution tracking:

import { createHook, executionAsyncId, triggerAsyncId } from 'node:async_hooks';
createHook({ init() {} }).enable(); // forces PromiseHooks to be enabled.
Promise.resolve(1729).then(() => {
  console.log(`eid ${executionAsyncId()} tid ${triggerAsyncId()}`);
});
// produces:
// eid 7 tid 6const { createHook, executionAsyncId, triggerAsyncId } = require('node:async_hooks');

createHook({ init() {} }).enable(); // forces PromiseHooks to be enabled.
Promise.resolve(1729).then(() => {
  console.log(`eid ${executionAsyncId()} tid ${triggerAsyncId()}`);
});
// produces:
// eid 7 tid 6copy

In this example, adding any actual hook function enabled the tracking of promises. There are two promises in the example above; the promise created by Promise.resolve() and the promise returned by the call to then(). In the example above, the first promise got the asyncId 6 and the latter got asyncId 7. During the execution of the then() callback, we are executing in the context of promise with asyncId 7. This promise was triggered by async resource 6.

Another subtlety with promises is that before and after callbacks are run only on chained promises. That means promises not created by then()/catch() will not have the before and after callbacks fired on them. For more details see the details of the V8 PromiseHooks API.

JavaScript embedder API#

Library developers that handle their own asynchronous resources performing tasks like I/O, connection pooling, or managing callback queues may use the AsyncResource JavaScript API so that all the appropriate callbacks are called.

Class: AsyncResource#

The documentation for this class has moved AsyncResource.

Class: AsyncLocalStorage#

The documentation for this class has moved AsyncLocalStorage.

Buffers and character encodings#

When converting between Buffers and strings, a character encoding may be specified. If no character encoding is specified, UTF-8 will be used as the default.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.from('hello world', 'utf8');

console.log(buf.toString('hex'));
// Prints: 68656c6c6f20776f726c64
console.log(buf.toString('base64'));
// Prints: aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=

console.log(Buffer.from('fhqwhgads', 'utf8'));
// Prints: <Buffer 66 68 71 77 68 67 61 64 73>
console.log(Buffer.from('fhqwhgads', 'utf16le'));
// Prints: <Buffer 66 00 68 00 71 00 77 00 68 00 67 00 61 00 64 00 73 00>const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.from('hello world', 'utf8');

console.log(buf.toString('hex'));
// Prints: 68656c6c6f20776f726c64
console.log(buf.toString('base64'));
// Prints: aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=

console.log(Buffer.from('fhqwhgads', 'utf8'));
// Prints: <Buffer 66 68 71 77 68 67 61 64 73>
console.log(Buffer.from('fhqwhgads', 'utf16le'));
// Prints: <Buffer 66 00 68 00 71 00 77 00 68 00 67 00 61 00 64 00 73 00>copy

Node.js buffers accept all case variations of encoding strings that they receive. For example, UTF-8 can be specified as 'utf8', 'UTF8', or 'uTf8'.

The character encodings currently supported by Node.js are the following:

• 'utf8' (alias: 'utf-8'): Multi-byte encoded Unicode characters. Many web pages and other document formats use UTF-8. This is the default character encoding. When decoding a Buffer into a string that does not exclusively contain valid UTF-8 data, the Unicode replacement character U+FFFD � will be used to represent those errors.

• 'utf16le' (alias: 'utf-16le'): Multi-byte encoded Unicode characters. Unlike 'utf8', each character in the string will be encoded using either 2 or 4 bytes. Node.js only supports the little-endian variant of UTF-16.

• 'latin1': Latin-1 stands for ISO-8859-1. This character encoding only supports the Unicode characters from U+0000 to U+00FF. Each character is encoded using a single byte. Characters that do not fit into that range are truncated and will be mapped to characters in that range.

Converting a Buffer into a string using one of the above is referred to as decoding, and converting a string into a Buffer is referred to as encoding.

Node.js also supports the following binary-to-text encodings. For binary-to-text encodings, the naming convention is reversed: Converting a Buffer into a string is typically referred to as encoding, and converting a string into a Buffer as decoding.

• 'base64': Base64 encoding. When creating a Buffer from a string, this encoding will also correctly accept "URL and Filename Safe Alphabet" as specified in RFC 4648, Section 5. Whitespace characters such as spaces, tabs, and new lines contained within the base64-encoded string are ignored.

• 'base64url': base64url encoding as specified in RFC 4648, Section 5. When creating a Buffer from a string, this encoding will also correctly accept regular base64-encoded strings. When encoding a Buffer to a string, this encoding will omit padding.

• 'hex': Encode each byte as two hexadecimal characters. Data truncation may occur when decoding strings that do not exclusively consist of an even number of hexadecimal characters. See below for an example.

The following legacy character encodings are also supported:

• 'ascii': For 7-bit ASCII data only. When encoding a string into a Buffer, this is equivalent to using 'latin1'. When decoding a Buffer into a string, using this encoding will additionally unset the highest bit of each byte before decoding as 'latin1'. Generally, there should be no reason to use this encoding, as 'utf8' (or, if the data is known to always be ASCII-only, 'latin1') will be a better choice when encoding or decoding ASCII-only text. It is only provided for legacy compatibility.

• 'binary': Alias for 'latin1'. The name of this encoding can be very misleading, as all of the encodings listed here convert between strings and binary data. For converting between strings and Buffers, typically 'utf8' is the right choice.

• 'ucs2', 'ucs-2': Aliases of 'utf16le'. UCS-2 used to refer to a variant of UTF-16 that did not support characters that had code points larger than U+FFFF. In Node.js, these code points are always supported.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

Buffer.from('1ag123', 'hex');
// Prints <Buffer 1a>, data truncated when first non-hexadecimal value
// ('g') encountered.

Buffer.from('1a7', 'hex');
// Prints <Buffer 1a>, data truncated when data ends in single digit ('7').

Buffer.from('1634', 'hex');
// Prints <Buffer 16 34>, all data represented.const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

Buffer.from('1ag123', 'hex');
// Prints <Buffer 1a>, data truncated when first non-hexadecimal value
// ('g') encountered.

Buffer.from('1a7', 'hex');
// Prints <Buffer 1a>, data truncated when data ends in single digit ('7').

Buffer.from('1634', 'hex');
// Prints <Buffer 16 34>, all data represented.copy

Modern Web browsers follow the WHATWG Encoding Standard which aliases both 'latin1' and 'ISO-8859-1' to 'win-1252'. This means that while doing something like http.get(), if the returned charset is one of those listed in the WHATWG specification it is possible that the server actually returned 'win-1252'-encoded data, and using 'latin1' encoding may incorrectly decode the characters.

Buffers and TypedArrays#

Buffer instances are also JavaScript Uint8Array and TypedArray instances. All TypedArray methods are available on Buffers. There are, however, subtle incompatibilities between the Buffer API and the TypedArray API.

In particular:

• While TypedArray.prototype.slice() creates a copy of part of the TypedArray, Buffer.prototype.slice() creates a view over the existing Buffer without copying. This behavior can be surprising, and only exists for legacy compatibility. TypedArray.prototype.subarray() can be used to achieve the behavior of Buffer.prototype.slice() on both Buffers and other TypedArrays and should be preferred.
• buf.toString() is incompatible with its TypedArray equivalent.
• A number of methods, e.g. buf.indexOf(), support additional arguments.

There are two ways to create new TypedArray instances from a Buffer:

• Passing a Buffer to a TypedArray constructor will copy the Buffers contents, interpreted as an array of integers, and not as a byte sequence of the target type.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.from([1, 2, 3, 4]);
const uint32array = new Uint32Array(buf);

console.log(uint32array);

// Prints: Uint32Array(4) [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.from([1, 2, 3, 4]);
const uint32array = new Uint32Array(buf);

console.log(uint32array);

// Prints: Uint32Array(4) [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]copy

• Passing the Buffers underlying ArrayBuffer will create a TypedArray that shares its memory with the Buffer.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.from('hello', 'utf16le');
const uint16array = new Uint16Array(
  buf.buffer,
  buf.byteOffset,
  buf.length / Uint16Array.BYTES_PER_ELEMENT);

console.log(uint16array);

// Prints: Uint16Array(5) [ 104, 101, 108, 108, 111 ]const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.from('hello', 'utf16le');
const uint16array = new Uint16Array(
  buf.buffer,
  buf.byteOffset,
  buf.length / Uint16Array.BYTES_PER_ELEMENT);

console.log(uint16array);

// Prints: Uint16Array(5) [ 104, 101, 108, 108, 111 ]copy

It is possible to create a new Buffer that shares the same allocated memory as a TypedArray instance by using the TypedArray object's .buffer property in the same way. Buffer.from() behaves like new Uint8Array() in this context.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const arr = new Uint16Array(2);

arr[0] = 5000;
arr[1] = 4000;

// Copies the contents of `arr`.
const buf1 = Buffer.from(arr);

// Shares memory with `arr`.
const buf2 = Buffer.from(arr.buffer);

console.log(buf1);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 a0>
console.log(buf2);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 13 a0 0f>

arr[1] = 6000;

console.log(buf1);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 a0>
console.log(buf2);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 13 70 17>const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const arr = new Uint16Array(2);

arr[0] = 5000;
arr[1] = 4000;

// Copies the contents of `arr`.
const buf1 = Buffer.from(arr);

// Shares memory with `arr`.
const buf2 = Buffer.from(arr.buffer);

console.log(buf1);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 a0>
console.log(buf2);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 13 a0 0f>

arr[1] = 6000;

console.log(buf1);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 a0>
console.log(buf2);
// Prints: <Buffer 88 13 70 17>copy

When creating a Buffer using a TypedArray's .buffer, it is possible to use only a portion of the underlying ArrayBuffer by passing in byteOffset and length parameters.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const arr = new Uint16Array(20);
const buf = Buffer.from(arr.buffer, 0, 16);

console.log(buf.length);
// Prints: 16const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const arr = new Uint16Array(20);
const buf = Buffer.from(arr.buffer, 0, 16);

console.log(buf.length);
// Prints: 16copy

The Buffer.from() and TypedArray.from() have different signatures and implementations. Specifically, the TypedArray variants accept a second argument that is a mapping function that is invoked on every element of the typed array:

• TypedArray.from(source[, mapFn[, thisArg]])

The Buffer.from() method, however, does not support the use of a mapping function:

• Buffer.from(array)
• Buffer.from(buffer)
• Buffer.from(arrayBuffer[, byteOffset[, length]])
• Buffer.from(string[, encoding])

Buffers and iteration#

Buffer instances can be iterated over using for..of syntax:

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.from([1, 2, 3]);

for (const b of buf) {
  console.log(b);
}
// Prints:
//   1
//   2
//   3const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.from([1, 2, 3]);

for (const b of buf) {
  console.log(b);
}
// Prints:
//   1
//   2
//   3copy

Additionally, the buf.values(), buf.keys(), and buf.entries() methods can be used to create iterators.

Class: Blob#

A Blob encapsulates immutable, raw data that can be safely shared across multiple worker threads.

new buffer.Blob([sources[, options]])#

• sources <string[]> | <ArrayBuffer[]> | <TypedArray[]> | <DataView[]> | <Blob[]> An array of string, <ArrayBuffer>, <TypedArray>, <DataView>, or <Blob> objects, or any mix of such objects, that will be stored within the Blob.
• options <Object>
  • endings <string> One of either 'transparent' or 'native'. When set to 'native', line endings in string source parts will be converted to the platform native line-ending as specified by require('node:os').EOL.
  • type <string> The Blob content-type. The intent is for type to convey the MIME media type of the data, however no validation of the type format is performed.

Creates a new Blob object containing a concatenation of the given sources.

<ArrayBuffer>, <TypedArray>, <DataView>, and <Buffer> sources are copied into the 'Blob' and can therefore be safely modified after the 'Blob' is created.

String sources are encoded as UTF-8 byte sequences and copied into the Blob. Unmatched surrogate pairs within each string part will be replaced by Unicode U+FFFD replacement characters.

blob.arrayBuffer()#

• Returns: <Promise>

Returns a promise that fulfills with an <ArrayBuffer> containing a copy of the Blob data.

blob.bytes()#

The blob.bytes() method returns the byte of the Blob object as a Promise<Uint8Array>.

const blob = new Blob(['hello']);
blob.bytes().then((bytes) => {
  console.log(bytes); // Outputs: Uint8Array(5) [ 104, 101, 108, 108, 111 ]
}); copy

blob.size#

The total size of the Blob in bytes.

blob.slice([start[, end[, type]]])#

• start <number> The starting index.
• end <number> The ending index.
• type <string> The content-type for the new Blob

Creates and returns a new Blob containing a subset of this Blob objects data. The original Blob is not altered.

blob.stream()#

• Returns: <ReadableStream>

Returns a new ReadableStream that allows the content of the Blob to be read.

blob.text()#

• Returns: <Promise>

Returns a promise that fulfills with the contents of the Blob decoded as a UTF-8 string.

blob.type#

• Type: <string>

The content-type of the Blob.

Blob objects and MessageChannel#

Once a <Blob> object is created, it can be sent via MessagePort to multiple destinations without transferring or immediately copying the data. The data contained by the Blob is copied only when the arrayBuffer() or text() methods are called.

import { Blob } from 'node:buffer';
import { setTimeout as delay } from 'node:timers/promises';

const blob = new Blob(['hello there']);

const mc1 = new MessageChannel();
const mc2 = new MessageChannel();

mc1.port1.onmessage = async ({ data }) => {
  console.log(await data.arrayBuffer());
  mc1.port1.close();
};

mc2.port1.onmessage = async ({ data }) => {
  await delay(1000);
  console.log(await data.arrayBuffer());
  mc2.port1.close();
};

mc1.port2.postMessage(blob);
mc2.port2.postMessage(blob);

// The Blob is still usable after posting.
blob.text().then(console.log);const { Blob } = require('node:buffer');
const { setTimeout: delay } = require('node:timers/promises');

const blob = new Blob(['hello there']);

const mc1 = new MessageChannel();
const mc2 = new MessageChannel();

mc1.port1.onmessage = async ({ data }) => {
  console.log(await data.arrayBuffer());
  mc1.port1.close();
};

mc2.port1.onmessage = async ({ data }) => {
  await delay(1000);
  console.log(await data.arrayBuffer());
  mc2.port1.close();
};

mc1.port2.postMessage(blob);
mc2.port2.postMessage(blob);

// The Blob is still usable after posting.
blob.text().then(console.log);copy

Class: Buffer#

The Buffer class is a global type for dealing with binary data directly. It can be constructed in a variety of ways.

Static method: Buffer.alloc(size[, fill[, encoding]])#

• size <integer> The desired length of the new Buffer.
• fill <string> | <Buffer> | <Uint8Array> | <integer> A value to pre-fill the new Buffer with. Default: 0.
• encoding <string> If fill is a string, this is its encoding. Default: 'utf8'.

Allocates a new Buffer of size bytes. If fill is undefined, the Buffer will be zero-filled.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.alloc(5);

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 00 00 00 00 00>const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.alloc(5);

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 00 00 00 00 00>copy

If size is larger than buffer.constants.MAX_LENGTH or smaller than 0, ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE is thrown.

If fill is specified, the allocated Buffer will be initialized by calling buf.fill(fill).

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.alloc(5, 'a');

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 61 61 61 61 61>const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.alloc(5, 'a');

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 61 61 61 61 61>copy

If both fill and encoding are specified, the allocated Buffer will be initialized by calling buf.fill(fill, encoding).

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.alloc(11, 'aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=', 'base64');

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64>const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.alloc(11, 'aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=', 'base64');

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 68 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f 72 6c 64>copy

Calling Buffer.alloc() can be measurably slower than the alternative Buffer.allocUnsafe() but ensures that the newly created Buffer instance contents will never contain sensitive data from previous allocations, including data that might not have been allocated for Buffers.

A TypeError will be thrown if size is not a number.

Static method: Buffer.allocUnsafe(size)#

• size <integer> The desired length of the new Buffer.

Allocates a new Buffer of size bytes. If size is larger than buffer.constants.MAX_LENGTH or smaller than 0, ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE is thrown.

The underlying memory for Buffer instances created in this way is not initialized. The contents of the newly created Buffer are unknown and may contain sensitive data. Use Buffer.alloc() instead to initialize Buffer instances with zeroes.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf = Buffer.allocUnsafe(10);

console.log(buf);
// Prints (contents may vary): <Buffer a0 8b 28 3f 01 00 00 00 50 32>

buf.fill(0);

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00>const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf = Buffer.allocUnsafe(10);

console.log(buf);
// Prints (contents may vary): <Buffer a0 8b 28 3f 01 00 00 00 50 32>

buf.fill(0);

console.log(buf);
// Prints: <Buffer 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00>copy

A TypeError will be thrown if size is not a number.

The Buffer module pre-allocates an internal Buffer instance of size Buffer.poolSize that is used as a pool for the fast allocation of new Buffer instances created using Buffer.allocUnsafe(), Buffer.from(array), Buffer.from(string), and Buffer.concat() only when size is less than Buffer.poolSize >>> 1 (floor of Buffer.poolSize divided by two).

Use of this pre-allocated internal memory pool is a key difference between calling Buffer.alloc(size, fill) vs. Buffer.allocUnsafe(size).fill(fill). Specifically, Buffer.alloc(size, fill) will never use the internal Buffer pool, while Buffer.allocUnsafe(size).fill(fill) will use the internal Buffer pool if size is less than or equal to half Buffer.poolSize. The difference is subtle but can be important when an application requires the additional performance that Buffer.allocUnsafe() provides.

Static method: Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(size)#

• size <integer> The desired length of the new Buffer.

Allocates a new Buffer of size bytes. If size is larger than buffer.constants.MAX_LENGTH or smaller than 0, ERR_OUT_OF_RANGE is thrown. A zero-length Buffer is created if size is 0.

The underlying memory for Buffer instances created in this way is not initialized. The contents of the newly created Buffer are unknown and may contain sensitive data. Use buf.fill(0) to initialize such Buffer instances with zeroes.

When using Buffer.allocUnsafe() to allocate new Buffer instances, allocations less than Buffer.poolSize >>> 1 (4KiB when default poolSize is used) are sliced from a single pre-allocated Buffer. This allows applications to avoid the garbage collection overhead of creating many individually allocated Buffer instances. This approach improves both performance and memory usage by eliminating the need to track and clean up as many individual ArrayBuffer objects.

However, in the case where a developer may need to retain a small chunk of memory from a pool for an indeterminate amount of time, it may be appropriate to create an un-pooled Buffer instance using Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow() and then copying out the relevant bits.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

// Need to keep around a few small chunks of memory.
const store = [];

socket.on('readable', () => {
  let data;
  while (null !== (data = readable.read())) {
    // Allocate for retained data.
    const sb = Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(10);

    // Copy the data into the new allocation.
    data.copy(sb, 0, 0, 10);

    store.push(sb);
  }
});const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

// Need to keep around a few small chunks of memory.
const store = [];

socket.on('readable', () => {
  let data;
  while (null !== (data = readable.read())) {
    // Allocate for retained data.
    const sb = Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(10);

    // Copy the data into the new allocation.
    data.copy(sb, 0, 0, 10);

    store.push(sb);
  }
});copy

A TypeError will be thrown if size is not a number.

Static method: Buffer.byteLength(string[, encoding])#

• string <string> | <Buffer> | <TypedArray> | <DataView> | <ArrayBuffer> | <SharedArrayBuffer> A value to calculate the length of.
• encoding <string> If string is a string, this is its encoding. Default: 'utf8'.
• Returns: <integer> The number of bytes contained within string.

Returns the byte length of a string when encoded using encoding. This is not the same as String.prototype.length, which does not account for the encoding that is used to convert the string into bytes.

For 'base64', 'base64url', and 'hex', this function assumes valid input. For strings that contain non-base64/hex-encoded data (e.g. whitespace), the return value might be greater than the length of a Buffer created from the string.

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const str = '\u00bd + \u00bc = \u00be';

console.log(`${str}: ${str.length} characters, ` +
            `${Buffer.byteLength(str, 'utf8')} bytes`);
// Prints: ½ + ¼ = ¾: 9 characters, 12 bytesconst { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const str = '\u00bd + \u00bc = \u00be';

console.log(`${str}: ${str.length} characters, ` +
            `${Buffer.byteLength(str, 'utf8')} bytes`);
// Prints: ½ + ¼ = ¾: 9 characters, 12 bytescopy

When string is a Buffer/DataView/TypedArray/ArrayBuffer/ SharedArrayBuffer, the byte length as reported by .byteLength is returned.

Static method: Buffer.compare(buf1, buf2)#

• buf1 <Buffer> | <Uint8Array>
• buf2 <Buffer> | <Uint8Array>
• Returns: <integer> Either -1, 0, or 1, depending on the result of the comparison. See buf.compare() for details.

Compares buf1 to buf2, typically for the purpose of sorting arrays of Buffer instances. This is equivalent to calling buf1.compare(buf2).

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer';

const buf1 = Buffer.from('1234');
const buf2 = Buffer.from('0123');
const arr = [buf1, buf2];

console.log(arr.sort(Buffer.compare));
// Prints: [ <Buffer 30 31 32 33>, <Buffer 31 32 33 34> ]
// (This result is equal to: [buf2, buf1].)const { Buffer } = require('node:buffer');

const buf1 = Buffer.from('1234');
const buf2 = Buffer.from('0123');
const arr = [buf1, buf2];

console.log(arr.sort(Buffer.compare));
// Prints: [ <Buffer 30 31 32 33>, <Buffer 31 32 33 34> ]
// (This result is equal to: [buf2, buf1].)copy