Deployment

A Nub project needs the nub CLI present wherever it builds. How you get it there depends on whether the environment gives you a setup step:

• You control a setup step — a CI workflow or a Dockerfile. Install Nub explicitly: the GitHub Action on GitHub Actions, or the Docker images in a container.
• A hosted builder runs the install for you — Cloudflare Workers Builds, Netlify, some Vercel setups. There's no seam to add a setup step, so Nub rides in as a devDependency.

Hosted builds

Hosted build environments run the install themselves from your lockfile and provision Node from .node-version or .tool-versions. There's no step to add the GitHub Action, so a package.json script that shells out to nub fails before it starts:

sh: nub: not found

Add @nubjs/nub as a devDependency and call it from your scripts:

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "@nubjs/nub": "^0.1.0"
  },
  "scripts": {
    "build": "nubx vite build"
  }
}

The package declares bin: { nub, nubx }, so any installer — including the pnpm these builders run — links both onto node_modules/.bin, and your scripts resolve them no matter who ran the install. This holds even under pnpm's default blocking of dependency build scripts (pnpm 10+): bin-linking is independent of script approval, and Nub's launcher sets its own execute bit at runtime, so there's nothing to allowlist.

It coexists with the project's real package manager. Nub reads the existing lockfile, so @nubjs/nub sits in devDependencies alongside pnpm, npm, or bun without conflict.

The builder still provisions Node from your version pin — set it so the build Node matches the version Nub resolves at runtime:

• package.json → devEngines.runtime
• .node-version
• .nvmrc
• package.json → engines.node

Which to use

• GitHub Actions — the GitHub Action. It installs Nub, eagerly provisions the pinned Node, and fronts it on PATH.
• A Dockerfile you control — the Docker images, or one line to layer Nub onto your own node base.
• A hosted builder with no setup step — the devDependency pattern above.

Version managers

Environments driven by .tool-versions can provision the CLI directly. mise ships a nub entry, so mise use nub@latest puts nub and nubx on PATH.