pkg

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: archived

Adoption not part of the score

24330 stars · 1077 forks observed · 2026-10-02

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-10-12, confidence 0.97

pkg is a command‑line utility that bundles a Node.js project into a single executable binary. It enables distribution of Node applications on machines without a Node runtime.

Use cases

• Create a standalone executable for a Node.js app to run on Windows, macOS, or Linux without installing Node.
• Distribute a commercial or trial version of a Node.js tool without exposing source code.
• Package assets and dependencies into a self‑extracting binary for easy deployment.
• Cross‑compile a Node.js project to target multiple platforms from a single development machine.
• Test an application against a specific Node.js version without installing that version locally.

When to choose

• You need a single‑file distribution of a Node.js application for end‑users without Node installed.
• Cross‑platform binaries are required and you prefer a simple CLI over complex container setups.
• You want to embed assets directly into the executable for portability.

When to avoid

• You require active maintenance or new feature development, as pkg is deprecated and no longer updated.
• Your application relies heavily on native addons that need custom build steps not supported by pkg.
• You need fine‑grained control over runtime environment beyond what pkg’s bundled binaries provide.

Facets

cli-tool · maturity abandoned

cli build-tool developer-tools web-development cross-platform cli nodejs-binaries single-executable cross-compilation pkg-fetch packaging command-line nodejs

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="vercel/pkg")