@vercel/nft

What is @vercel/nft?

The @vercel/nft (Node File Tracer) package is a tool used to trace the files that are required by a Node.js application or module at runtime. It is primarily used to determine the minimal set of files necessary to run a Node.js application, which is useful for creating lightweight Docker containers, serverless deployments, and reducing deployment package sizes.

What are @vercel/nft's main functionalities?

File Tracing

This feature allows you to trace the files that are required by a specific entry point file or set of files. The function `nodeFileTrace` takes an array of file paths and returns a list of all the files that are needed to execute them, including node_modules dependencies.

const { nodeFileTrace } = require('@vercel/nft');

(async () => {
  const files = await nodeFileTrace(['path/to/your/file.js']);
  console.log(files);
})();

Other packages similar to @vercel/nft

pkg

The 'pkg' package is used to package Node.js projects into executable binaries. While it does not perform file tracing like @vercel/nft, it also aims to include only the necessary files to run the application, which is a similar end goal.

ncc

The 'ncc' package, also by Vercel, compiles a Node.js module into a single file, including all its dependencies. It is similar to @vercel/nft in that it helps to bundle only what is necessary for deployment, but it does so by compiling the code rather than tracing file dependencies.

webpack-node-externals

This Webpack plugin is used to exclude node_modules when bundling a Node.js application with Webpack. It is similar to @vercel/nft in the sense that it helps to reduce the size of the deployment by excluding unnecessary files, but it does so as part of the Webpack bundling process.

README

Node File Trace

Used to determine exactly which files (including node_modules) are necessary for the application runtime.

This is similar to @vercel/ncc except there is no bundling performed and therefore no reliance on webpack. This achieves the same tree-shaking benefits without moving any assets or binaries.

Usage

Installation

npm i @vercel/nft

Usage

Provide the list of source files as input:

const { nodeFileTrace } = require('@vercel/nft');
const files = ['./src/main.js', './src/second.js'];
const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files);

The list of files will include all node_modules modules and assets that may be needed by the application code.

Options

Base

The base path for the file list - all files will be provided as relative to this base.

By default the process.cwd() is used:

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  base: process.cwd()
}

Any files/folders above the base are ignored in the listing and analysis.

Process Cwd

When applying analysis certain functions rely on the process.cwd() value, such as path.resolve('./relative') or even a direct process.cwd() invocation.

Setting the processCwd option allows this analysis to be guided to the right path to ensure that assets are correctly detected.

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  processCwd: path.resolve(__dirname)
}

By default processCwd is the same as base.

Exports & Imports

By default tracing of the Node.js "exports" and "imports" fields is supported, with the "node", "require", "import" and "default" conditions traced as defined.

Alternatively the explicit list of conditions can be provided:

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  conditions: ['node', 'production']
});

Only the "node" export should be explicitly included (if needed) when specifying the exact export condition list. The "require", "import" and "default" conditions will always be traced as defined, no matter what custom conditions are set.

Exports Only

When tracing exports the "main" / index field will still be traced for Node.js versions without "exports" support.

This can be disabled with the exportsOnly option:

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  exportsOnly: true
});

Any package with "exports" will then only have its exports traced, and the main will not be included at all. This can reduce the output size when targeting Node.js 12.17.0 or newer.

Paths

Status: Experimental. May change at any time.

Custom resolution path definitions to use.

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  paths: {
    'utils/': '/path/to/utils/'
  }
});

Trailing slashes map directories, exact paths map exact only.

Hooks

The following FS functions can be hooked by passing them as options:

• readFile(path): Promise<string>
• stat(path): Promise<FS.Stats>
• readlink(path): Promise<string>
• resolve(id: string, parent: string): Promise<string | string[]>

TypeScript

The internal resolution supports resolving .ts files in traces by default.

By its nature of integrating into existing build systems, the TypeScript compiler is not included in this project - rather the TypeScript transform layer requires separate integration into the readFile hook.

Analysis

Analysis options allow customizing how much analysis should be performed to exactly work out the dependency list.

By default as much analysis as possible is done to ensure no possibly needed files are left out of the trace.

To disable all analysis, set analysis: false. Alternatively, individual analysis options can be customized via:

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  // default
  analysis: {
    // whether to glob any analysis like __dirname + '/dir/' or require('x/' + y)
    // that might output any file in a directory
    emitGlobs: true,
    // whether __filename and __dirname style
    // expressions should be analyzed as file references
    computeFileReferences: true,
    // evaluate known bindings to assist with glob and file reference analysis
    evaluatePureExpressions: true,
  }
});

Ignore

Custom ignores can be provided to skip file inclusion (and consequently analysis of the file for references in turn as well).

const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(files, {
  ignore: ['./node_modules/pkg/file.js']
});

Ignore will also accept a function or globs.

Note that the path provided to ignore is relative to base.

Cache

To persist the file cache between builds, pass an empty cache object:

const cache = Object.create(null);
const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(['index.ts'], { cache });
// later:
{
  const { fileList } = await nodeFileTrace(['index.ts'], { cache });
}

Note that cache invalidations are not supported so the assumption is that the file system is not changed between runs.

Reasons

To get the underlying reasons for individual files being included, a reasons object is also provided by the output:

const { fileList, reasons } = await nodeFileTrace(files);

The reasons output will then be an object of the following form:

{
  [file: string]: {
    type: 'dependency' | 'asset' | 'sharedlib',
    ignored: true | false,
    parents: string[]
  }
}

reasons also includes files that were ignored as ignored: true, with their ignoreReason.

Every file is included because it is referenced by another file. The parents list will contain the list of all files that caused this file to be included.