Node.js Patterns

---
description: Node.js Patterns
alwaysApply: false
---

# Node.js Patterns

Production Node.js patterns for services, CLIs, and tooling.

## Graceful Shutdown

```typescript
const shutdown = async (signal: string) => {
  process.stdout.write(`Received ${signal}, shutting down...`);
  server.close();
  await db.disconnect();
  process.exit(0);
};
process.on('SIGTERM', () => shutdown('SIGTERM'));
process.on('SIGINT', () => shutdown('SIGINT'));
process.on('unhandledRejection', (reason) => { console.error('Unhandled:', reason); process.exit(1); });
```

## Streams

```typescript
import { pipeline } from 'node:stream/promises';
// Always use pipeline for proper error handling and cleanup
await pipeline(
  createReadStream('input.log'),
  new Transform({ transform(chunk, _, cb) {
    cb(null, chunk.toString().split('\n').filter((l: string) => l.includes('ERROR')).join('\n'));
  }}),
  createGzip(),
  createWriteStream('errors.log.gz'),
);
```

## Worker Threads

```typescript
import { Worker, isMainThread, parentPort, workerData } from 'node:worker_threads';
if (isMainThread) {
  const runWorker = <T>(data: unknown): Promise<T> =>
    new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      const worker = new Worker(new URL(import.meta.url), { workerData: data });
      worker.on('message', resolve);
      worker.on('error', reject);
    });
} else {
  parentPort!.postMessage(performExpensiveComputation(workerData));
}
```

## Configuration

```typescript
import { z } from 'zod';
const EnvSchema = z.object({
  NODE_ENV: z.enum(['development', 'production', 'test']),
  PORT: z.coerce.number().int().positive().default(3000),
  DATABASE_URL: z.string().url(),
});
export const env = EnvSchema.parse(process.env); // Crash at startup if invalid
```

## Module System

- Use `node:` protocol for builtins (`import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'`)
- ESM by default — `"type": "module"`, use `.js` extensions in imports
- Always use `fs/promises`, never sync variants in async code

## Anti-Patterns

- Never `require()` in ESM — use `import` or `createRequire`
- Never unbounded concurrency — use `p-limit` or manual batching
- Never `process.exit()` without cleanup or string concat for SQL