Nodejs Development

Node.js Development Skill

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for building modern Node.js applications covering the event loop, async patterns, streams, file system operations, HTTP servers, process management, and best practices for production-ready Node.js development.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Building RESTful APIs and backend services
• Creating command-line interface (CLI) tools and utilities
• Developing microservices and distributed systems
• Building real-time applications with WebSockets or Server-Sent Events
• Creating build tools, task runners, and development tools
• Working with file processing and data transformation
• Implementing server-side data validation and business logic
• Building proxy servers and middleware layers
• Creating automation scripts and system utilities
• Developing serverless functions and cloud-native applications
• Implementing background job processors and workers
• Building GraphQL servers and API gateways

Core Concepts

Event Loop

The event loop is the heart of Node.js, enabling non-blocking I/O operations despite JavaScript being single-threaded.

Event Loop Phases:

// The event loop processes operations in this order:
// 1. Timers (setTimeout, setInterval)
// 2. Pending callbacks (I/O callbacks deferred from previous iteration)
// 3. Idle, prepare (internal use)
// 4. Poll (retrieve new I/O events)
// 5. Check (setImmediate callbacks)
// 6. Close callbacks (socket.on('close'))

// Understanding execution order
console.log('1 - Start');

setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('2 - Timeout');
}, 0);

setImmediate(() => {
  console.log('3 - Immediate');
});

Promise.resolve().then(() => {
  console.log('4 - Promise');
});

process.nextTick(() => {
  console.log('5 - Next Tick');
});

console.log('6 - End');

// Output order: 1, 6, 5, 4, 2, 3
// (process.nextTick and Promises run before other phases)

Event Loop Best Practices:

// Don't block the event loop
// Bad - blocking operation
const data = fs.readFileSync('large-file.txt'); // Blocks

// Good - non-blocking
fs.readFile('large-file.txt', (err, data) => {
  // Non-blocking
});

// Better - using promises
const data = await fs.promises.readFile('large-file.txt');

// Avoid heavy CPU operations
// Bad - blocks event loop
function fibonacci(n) {
  if (n <= 1) return n;
  return fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2);
}

// Good - offload to worker threads
const { Worker } = require('worker_threads');

function computeInWorker(n) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const worker = new Worker('./fibonacci-worker.js', {
      workerData: n
    });
    worker.on('message', resolve);
    worker.on('error', reject);
  });
}

Modules

Node.js supports both CommonJS and ES Modules for organizing code.

CommonJS (Traditional):

// math.js - Exporting
function add(a, b) {
  return a + b;
}

function subtract(a, b) {
  return a - b;
}

module.exports = { add, subtract };

// Alternative export syntax
exports.multiply = (a, b) => a * b;

// app.js - Importing
const { add, subtract } = require('./math');
const fs = require('fs'); // Built-in module
const express = require('express'); // npm package

console.log(add(5, 3)); // 8

ES Modules (Modern):

// math.mjs or math.js (with "type": "module" in package.json)
export function add(a, b) {
  return a + b;
}

export function subtract(a, b) {
  return a - b;
}

export default class Calculator {
  add(a, b) { return a + b; }
}

// app.mjs - Importing
import { add, subtract } from './math.mjs';
import Calculator from './math.mjs';
import fs from 'fs';
import express from 'express';

console.log(add(5, 3)); // 8

Built-in Modules:

// Core Node.js modules (no npm install required)
const fs = require('fs');           // File system
const path = require('path');       // Path utilities
const http = require('http');       // HTTP server
const https = require('https');     // HTTPS server
const crypto = require('crypto');   // Cryptography
const os = require('os');           // Operating system
const events = require('events');   // Event emitter
const stream = require('stream');   // Streams
const util = require('util');       // Utilities
const child_process = require('child_process'); // Child processes
const cluster = require('cluster'); // Clustering
const url = require('url');         // URL parsing
const querystring = require('querystring'); // Query strings

Async Programming

Node.js provides multiple patterns for handling asynchronous operations.

Callbacks (Traditional):

const fs = require('fs');

// Error-first callback pattern
fs.readFile('file.txt', 'utf8', (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error('Error reading file:', err);
    return;
  }
  console.log('File contents:', data);
});

// Callback hell (avoid this)
fs.readFile('file1.txt', (err, data1) => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  fs.readFile('file2.txt', (err, data2) => {
    if (err) return console.error(err);
    fs.readFile('file3.txt', (err, data3) => {
      if (err) return console.error(err);
      console.log(data1, data2, data3);
    });
  });
});

Promises:

const fs = require('fs').promises;

// Basic promise
fs.readFile('file.txt', 'utf8')
  .then(data => {
    console.log('File contents:', data);
    return data;
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error('Error:', err);
  })
  .finally(() => {
    console.log('Operation complete');
  });

// Promise chaining
fs.readFile('file1.txt', 'utf8')
  .then(data1 => {
    console.log('File 1:', data1);
    return fs.readFile('file2.txt', 'utf8');
  })
  .then(data2 => {
    console.log('File 2:', data2);
    return fs.readFile('file3.txt', 'utf8');
  })
  .then(data3 => {
    console.log('File 3:', data3);
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error('Error:', err);
  });

// Promise.all for parallel operations
Promise.all([
  fs.readFile('file1.txt', 'utf8'),
  fs.readFile('file2.txt', 'utf8'),
  fs.readFile('file3.txt', 'utf8')
])
  .then(([data1, data2, data3]) => {
    console.log(data1, data2, data3);
  })
  .catch(err => {
    console.error('Error:', err);
  });

// Promise utilities
Promise.race([
  fetch('https://api1.com'),
  fetch('https://api2.com')
]); // Returns first to complete

Promise.allSettled([
  promise1,
  promise2,
  promise3
]); // Waits for all, returns all results (success or failure)

Promise.any([
  promise1,
  promise2
]); // Returns first successful promise

Async/Await (Modern):

const fs = require('fs').promises;

// Basic async/await
async function readFile() {
  try {
    const data = await fs.readFile('file.txt', 'utf8');
    console.log('File contents:', data);
    return data;
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Error:', err);
    throw err;
  }
}

// Sequential execution
async function readFilesSequentially() {
  try {
    const data1 = await fs.readFile('file1.txt', 'utf8');
    const data2 = await fs.readFile('file2.txt', 'utf8');
    const data3 = await fs.readFile('file3.txt', 'utf8');
    return [data1, data2, data3];
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Error:', err);
    throw err;
  }
}

// Parallel execution
async function readFilesParallel() {
  try {
    const [data1, data2, data3] = await Promise.all([
      fs.readFile('file1.txt', 'utf8'),
      fs.readFile('file2.txt', 'utf8'),
      fs.readFile('file3.txt', 'utf8')
    ]);
    return [data1, data2, data3];
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Error:', err);
    throw err;
  }
}

// Top-level await (ES modules only)
const data = await fs.readFile('config.json', 'utf8');
const config = JSON.parse(data);

// Error handling patterns
async function robustOperation() {
  try {
    const result = await riskyOperation();
    return { success: true, data: result };
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Operation failed:', err);