Introduction

Nub is an all-in-one toolkit powered by Node.js that modernizes the developer experience in the Node.js ecosystem. Use it to run files, package.json scripts, and locally installed CLIs — instead of node, npm run, and npx (or the equivalents in your preferred package manager).

npm i -g @nubjs/nub
nub index.ts             # run a TypeScript file
nub run dev              # run a package.json script
nub watch src/server.ts  # restart on file changes
nubx prisma generate     # run a CLI from node_modules/.bin

It's written in Rust, powered by Node.js, and provides a Bun-like modern DX on top of the node you already have installed. There is no new runtime to adopt and no lock-in: every augmentation rides on Node's own public extension surfaces.

What it combines

• A file runner (nub index.ts) — execute .{js,cjs,mjs,jsx,ts,cts,mts,tsx} files with complete TypeScript support and perfect Node compatibility.
• A script runner (nub run) — run package.json scripts an order of magnitude faster than pnpm run, with the full workspace and lifecycle-hook surface preserved.
• A bin runner (nubx) — run local CLIs installed in your project an order of magnitude faster than npx.
• A watcher (nub watch) — restarts on changes to your source, your .env* files, and your tsconfig.json. The dependency graph drives the watch set; no glob hygiene required.

Install

npm install -g @nubjs/nub

Both pnpm add -g @nubjs/nub and yarn global add @nubjs/nub work equivalently. That installs the Rust binary plus the platform-specific N-API addons, and puts nub and nubx on your PATH.

Requirements

• Node 18.19+ (Node 18 LTS) for augmented modes.
• macOS (arm64, x64), Linux (x64, arm64), Windows (x64).

Where to next

• Quick answers: the FAQ.