esm-dev/esm.sh

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

4158 stars · 206 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

esm.sh is a no-build JavaScript CDN that serves npm, JSR, and GitHub packages as ES modules over HTTP URLs, transforming TypeScript, Vue, and Svelte files on the fly. It is written in Go and can be self-hosted, letting modern web apps import dependencies directly in the browser or Deno without bundlers or install steps.

Use cases

• import npm packages directly in the browser without a bundler
• serve ES modules from a CDN for a no-build web app
• use import maps with bare specifiers like react
• transform tsx, vue, and svelte files on the fly in the browser
• import packages from GitHub repos or JSR by URL
• prototype web apps in Deno using npm packages
• self-host an ESM CDN for internal packages

When to choose

• you want zero build tooling and to load dependencies straight from URLs
• you are building quick prototypes, demos, or Deno scripts using npm packages
• you need on-the-fly transformation of TypeScript, Vue, or Svelte in the browser
• you want to pin package versions or submodules via simple URL patterns

When to avoid

• you need a full production build pipeline with tree-shaking, minification, and code splitting
• your app must work offline or in environments without CDN access
• you require strict supply-chain control over every dependency and its transitive graph

Facets

service · maturity active

http-server developer-tools web-framework web-development frontend developer-tools apis self-hosted go cdn esm no-build npm-packages import-maps deno browser-modules web-server

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="esm-dev/esm.sh")