nodejs-best-practices

A guide to making Node.js development choices, including web frameworks, asynchronous code, security, and application structure. Node.js lets JavaScript run on servers and in command-line programs.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when choosing Hono, Fastify, NestJS, Express, Next.js API routes, or tRPC for APIs, serverless services, enterprise systems, legacy projects, or full-stack applications.
Why use it?
It helps select tools and patterns according to the application instead of defaulting to one framework. It also frames choices around deployment, performance, team needs, and existing code.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/diillson/chatcli/nodejs-best-practices
Any agent
npx skills add diillson/chatcli --skill nodejs-best-practices
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/diillson/chatcli

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 33 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,936 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 91% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00033 $0.01936
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.00968
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00387
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00194

Measured 2d ago against content hash e6d0dea6b638, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

nodejs-best-practices scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

This is a copy

91% identical to nodejs-best-practices — 23 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.agent/skills/nodejs-best-practices/SKILL.md · 334 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 334 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Node.js Best Practices

Principles and decision-making for Node.js development in 2025. Learn to THINK, not memorize code patterns.


⚠️ How to Use This Skill

This skill teaches decision-making principles, not fixed code to copy.

  • ASK user for preferences when unclear
  • Choose framework/pattern based on CONTEXT
  • Don't default to same solution every time

1. Framework Selection (2025)

Decision Tree

What are you building?
│
├── Edge/Serverless (Cloudflare, Vercel)
│   └── Hono (zero-dependency, ultra-fast cold starts)
│
├── High Performance API
│   └── Fastify (2-3x faster than Express)
│
├── Enterprise/Team familiarity
│   └── NestJS (structured, DI, decorators)
│
├── Legacy/Stable/Maximum ecosystem
│   └── Express (mature, most middleware)
│
└── Full-stack with frontend
    └── Next.js API Routes or tRPC

Comparison Principles

Factor Hono Fastify Express
Best for Edge, serverless Performance Legacy, learning
Cold start Fastest Fast Moderate
Ecosystem Growing Good Largest
TypeScript Native Excellent Good
Learning curve Low Medium Low

Selection Questions to Ask:

  1. What's the deployment target?
  2. Is cold start time critical?
  3. Does team have existing experience?
  4. Is there legacy code to maintain?

2. Runtime Considerations (2025)

Native TypeScript

Node.js 22+: --experimental-strip-types
├── Run .ts files directly
├── No build step needed for simple projects
└── Consider for: scripts, simple APIs

Module System Decision

ESM (import/export)
├── Modern standard
├── Better tree-shaking
├── Async module loading
└── Use for: new projects

CommonJS (require)
├── Legacy compatibility
├── More npm packages support
└── Use for: existing codebases, some edge cases

Runtime Selection

Runtime Best For
Node.js General purpose, largest ecosystem
Bun Performance, built-in bundler
Deno Security-first, built-in TypeScript

Read the full file on GitHub · 334 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 334 lines · 33 tokens per session scan A e6d0dea6b638

Subscribe to this mod's changes

nodejs-best-practices is a skill published in the GitHub repository diillson/chatcli (89 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 33 tokens to every session and 1,936 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 91% identical to nodejs-best-practices, differing in 23 lines, and is treated as a copy.