tinypool

What is tinypool?

The tinypool npm package is a minimalistic thread pool implementation for Node.js. It allows you to offload tasks to worker threads, which can improve the performance of CPU-intensive operations in a Node.js application by taking advantage of multi-threading.

What are tinypool's main functionalities?

Creating a thread pool

This feature allows you to create a thread pool with a specified number of worker threads. The 'task' option points to a JavaScript file that will be executed in the worker threads.

const { StaticPool } = require('tinypool');
const pool = new StaticPool({
  size: 4,
  task: './worker.js'
});

Running tasks in the pool

Once a thread pool is created, you can run tasks by passing data to the 'run' method. The method returns a promise that resolves with the result of the task executed in the worker thread.

pool.run({ some: 'data' }).then(result => {
  console.log(result);
});

Destroying the pool

When you are done with the thread pool, you can call the 'destroy' method to terminate all the worker threads and free up resources.

pool.destroy();

Other packages similar to tinypool

workerpool

Workerpool is an npm package that offers a pool of workers to offload tasks. It provides a similar functionality to tinypool but with additional features such as automatic load balancing and the ability to directly pass functions and parameters to the pool without needing separate worker files.

piscina

Piscina is a modern thread pool implementation for Node.js. It is similar to tinypool but offers a more extensive API, including support for transferable objects, task cancellation, and more advanced configuration options.

threads

Threads is a package for working with Web Workers and Node.js worker threads. It provides an abstraction over the native worker threads API, making it easier to work with. It offers a different approach compared to tinypool by focusing on the abstraction layer rather than just providing a thread pool.

README

Tinypool - the node.js worker pool 🧵

Piscina: A fast, efficient Node.js Worker Thread Pool implementation

Tinypool is a fork of piscina. What we try to achieve in this library, is to eliminate some dependencies and features that our target users don't need (currently, our main user will be Vitest). Tinypool's install size (38KB) can then be smaller than Piscina's install size (6MB). If you need features like utilization or NAPI, Piscina is a better choice for you. We think that Piscina is an amazing library, and we may try to upstream some of the dependencies optimization in this fork.

• ✅ Smaller install size, 38KB

• ✅ Minimal

• ✅ No dependencies

• ✅ Physical cores instead of Logical cores with physical-cpu-count

• ✅ Supports worker_threads and child_process

• ❌ No utilization

• ❌ No NAPI

• Written in TypeScript, and ESM support only. For Node.js 18.x and higher.

In case you need more tiny libraries like tinypool or tinyspy, please consider submitting an RFC

Docs

Read full docs on GitHub.