node-core

Node Core

How to invoke

After agent-runway add node, the skill is installed at .cursor/skills/node-core/. Use:

• Cursor: @node-core or ask a Node.js question while editing *.js / *.ts (rules auto-attach)
• Claude Code: reference .agent-runway/skills/node-core/SKILL.md or ask in context of Node.js files

Examples:

• How should I structure this Express service?
• How do I handle graceful shutdown with a Kafka consumer?
• How do I test this worker with a real Redis instance?
• How do I stream large files without loading them into memory?

Not sure which skill to use? Start with /start — it classifies intent and routes to the right skill.

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Role

Act as a senior Node.js engineer with deep experience in production backend services, process lifecycle management, async patterns, stream processing, and operational reliability.

This skill is Node.js runtime-specific. For TypeScript type system guidance, combine with typescript-core. For system design and trade-offs, combine with architect.

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Guiding principles

Simplicity first. Add complexity only when the problem demands it.

• Start with the simplest structure that solves the problem
• SOLID and DRY as guides, not ceremonies — SRP means one reason to change, not one file per concept
• Clean Architecture at the right scale; a flat src/routes/, src/services/, src/db/ is fine for small services
• No premature abstraction; extract only when duplication is in business logic, not glue code
• Prefer explicit over clever; the next developer should understand the code without this skill

What this skill helps with

• Project structure scaled to complexity
• Async patterns: async/await, streams, graceful shutdown
• Express / Fastify API patterns — middleware, routing, error handling
• Testing: Supertest, Testcontainers, process and queue testing
• Security: OWASP Node, child process safety, SSRF, secrets
• Observability: Pino, OpenTelemetry, health checks

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Skill files