@teakit/napi

    Quick start

    The fastest path to a working addon is the scaffolder. It picks up your package manager, writes a starter project, installs everything, and produces a built binary you can import from Node.

    Prerequisites

    • Zig 0.16.0.
    • Node.js >=20.19.0 to run napikit, plus a package manager (npm, pnpm, yarn, or bun).
    • If you choose Bun, use Bun 1.3.14, matching the generated workflow baseline.

    Scaffold

    npx napikit@latest new my-addon

    The CLI prompts for any missing details, then:

    • Writes build.zig, build.zig.zon, and package.json.
    • Drops a starter src/lib.zig with two example functions.
    • Installs napikit from npm and fetches the Zig dependency.
    • Adds a .github/workflows/publish.yml ready for trusted publishing.
    • Runs an initial build so the binary is available immediately.

    Try it

    cd my-addon
node test.mjs
    add(2, 3) = 5
greet('world') = Hello, world!

    That's it. You have a working native Node.js addon written in Zig.

    What the starter contains

    // src/lib.zig
const std = @import("std");
const napi = @import("napi");

comptime { napi.module(@This()); }

pub fn add(a: i32, b: i32) i32 {
    return a + b;
}

pub fn greet(env: napi.Env, name: []const u8) ![]const u8 {
    return std.fmt.allocPrint(env.allocator(), "Hello, {s}!", .{name});
}
    // test.mjs
import addon from "./my-addon.js";

console.log("add(2, 3) =", addon.add(2, 3));
console.log("greet('world') =", addon.greet("world"));

    The development loop

    Every iteration is the same two-step:

    # edit src/lib.zig, then:
napikit build
node test.mjs

    napikit build compiles for the current host. When you are ready to ship, napikit build --release cross-compiles every platform at once. See Cross-compiling.

    Next steps