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Set up Node for small scripts, CLIs, and basic servers.

Node.js excels at building lightweight scripts, command-line tools, and simple servers. This section covers the essential patterns for Node development without the complexity of large frameworks.

🎯 Goals

  • Clean setup with nvm for version management
  • Simple project structure that scales from scripts to small applications
  • Practical patterns for CLI tools, environment variables, and basic servers
  • Modern JavaScript with ES modules and current Node features

🔍 Quick Verification

Test your Node.js environment:

# Check Node version management
nvm --version
nvm list

# Check current Node and npm
node --version
npm --version

# Test basic functionality
node -e "console.log('Node.js is working!')"

# Check package creation
npm init -y
ls package.json && rm package.json

📚 Essential Guides

Setup & Fundamentals

Development Patterns

Advanced (Optional)

  • TypeScript Intro - Adding types to Node projects (coming soon)
  • Testing - Vitest or Jest for Node testing (coming soon)

🚀 Common Workflows

New Script Project

  1. Create directory → mkdir my-script && cd my-script
  2. Initialize package → Project Init
  3. Set up environment → Environment Variables
  4. Write and test → Start coding your script
  5. Add npm scripts → NPM Scripts

Typical Project Structure

my-node-project/
├── .env                # Environment variables (local)
├── .env.example        # Environment template
├── .gitignore          # Node-specific ignores
├── .nvmrc              # Node version for nvm
├── package.json        # Project configuration and scripts
├── package-lock.json   # Dependency lock file
├── README.md           # Project documentation
├── src/               # Source code
│   ├── index.js       # Main entry point
│   ├── lib/           # Reusable modules
│   └── bin/           # CLI executables
└── scripts/           # Build and utility scripts
  • Python - Compare with Python for scripting needs
  • Git - Version control for Node projects
  • AI Tools - Using AI tools with JavaScript/Node development
  • Toolkit - VS Code setup and Node tooling

⚡ Quick References

Project Initialization: 

# Quick project setup
mkdir my-project && cd my-project
echo "18" > .nvmrc  # Pin Node version
nvm use
npm init -y
npm install dotenv

# Basic gitignore
echo "node_modules/\n.env\n*.log" > .gitignore

Package.json Scripts: 

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node src/index.js",
    "dev": "node --watch src/index.js", 
    "test": "node --test",
    "build": "echo 'No build step needed'"
  }
}

Environment Variables: 

// Load environment variables
import 'dotenv/config';

// Use environment variables
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
const dbUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL || 'sqlite://./dev.db';

console.log(`Server starting on port ${port}`);

Simple HTTP Server: 

import http from 'http';

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
  res.end('Hello World!\n');
});

const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
server.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server running at http://localhost:${port}/`);
});

CLI Script Template: 

#!/usr/bin/env node

import { readFileSync } from 'fs';
import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
import { dirname, join } from 'path';

// Get package.json for version info
const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
const __dirname = dirname(__filename);
const packageJson = JSON.parse(
  readFileSync(join(__dirname, '../package.json'), 'utf8')
);

// Simple argument parsing
const args = process.argv.slice(2);
if (args.includes('--version') || args.includes('-v')) {
  console.log(packageJson.version);
  process.exit(0);
}

if (args.includes('--help') || args.includes('-h')) {
  console.log('Usage: my-cli [options]');
  console.log('  --version, -v    Show version');
  console.log('  --help, -h       Show help');
  process.exit(0);
}

// Main CLI logic
console.log('Hello from CLI!');

Modern JavaScript Patterns: 

// ES modules (use "type": "module" in package.json)
import fs from 'fs/promises';
import path from 'path';

// Async/await for file operations
try {
  const data = await fs.readFile('config.json', 'utf8');
  const config = JSON.parse(data);
  console.log('Config loaded:', config);
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to load config:', error.message);
}

// Template literals for strings
const message = `
Hello ${name}!
Current time: ${new Date().toISOString()}
`;

Start here: If you're new to Node.js, begin with Install & Setup to get nvm working, then follow Project Init for creating your first Node project.