This section walks you through everything you need to begin building native Node.js addons with Node-API. It is designed for developers who are new to native addon development and want a guided path from zero to a working module.
- Prerequisites - the C/C++ and JavaScript knowledge you need before diving in
- The tools you'll need - how to install Node, npm, Git, and the C/C++ toolchain on Windows, macOS, and Linux
- Anatomy of a Node-API project - the common directory layout,
package.jsonentries,binding.gyp, and the JavaScript wrapper layer shared by everynode-addon-apiproject - Your first project - building and running your first Node-API module
- ObjectWrap - exposing C++ objects as JavaScript objects using
node-addon-api'sObjectWrapclass - Migrating from NAN - converting an existing NAN-based addon to Node-API
Node-API operates at two levels:
- C API - built directly into Node.js and documented on the Node.js API pages. Gives you maximum control and no extra dependencies.
- C++ wrapper (
node-addon-api) - an npm package that wraps the C API in a friendlier C++ object model. Recommended for most projects because it reduces boilerplate significantly while preserving full ABI stability.
The examples in this section use node-addon-api.