Not babashka. Node.js babashka!?
Ad-hoc CLJS scripting on Node.js.
Try it out
Run npx nbb
to run nbb on your own machine, or try it in a browser on
Replit!
Goals and features
Nbb's main goal is to make it easy to get started with ad hoc CLJS scripting on Node.js.
Additional goals and features are:
- Fast startup without relying on a custom version of Node.js.
- Small artifact (current size is around 1.2MB).
- First class macros.
- Support building small TUI apps using Reagent.
- Complement babashka with libraries from the Node.js ecosystem.
Community
- Submit bugs at Github Issues.
- Join Github Discussions for proposing ideas, show and tell and Q&A.
- Join the channel on Clojurians Slack.
- Follow news or tweet using the Twitter hashtag #nbbjs.
Requirements
Nbb requires Node.js v14 or newer.
How does this tool work?
CLJS code is evaluated through SCI, the same interpreter that powers babashka. Because SCI works with advanced compilation, the bundle size, especially when combined with other dependencies, is smaller than what you get with self-hosted CLJS. That makes startup faster. The trade-off is that execution is less performant and that only a subset of CLJS is available (e.g. no deftype, yet).
Usage
Install nbb
from NPM:
$ npm install nbb -g
Omit -g
for a local install.
Try out an expression:
$ nbb -e '(+ 1 2 3)'
6
And then install some other NPM libraries to use in the script. E.g. with the following package.json
:
{
"dependencies": {
"csv-parse": "^5.0.4",
"shelljs": "^0.8.5",
"term-size": "^3.0.1",
"zx": "^5.3.0"
}
}
Create a script which uses the NPM libraries:
(ns example
(:require ["csv-parse/sync$default" :as csv]
["fs" :as fs]
["path" :as path]
["shelljs$default" :as sh]
["term-size$default" :as term-size]
["zx" :refer [$]]
["zx$fs" :as zxfs]
[nbb.core :refer [*file*]]))
(prn (path/resolve "."))
(prn (term-size))
(println (count (str (fs/readFileSync *file*))))
(prn (sh/ls "."))
(prn (csv/parse "foo,bar"))
(prn (zxfs/existsSync *file*))
($ #js ["ls"])
Call the script:
$ nbb script.cljs
"/private/tmp/test-script"
#js {:columns 216, :rows 47}
510
#js ["node_modules" "package-lock.json" "package.json" "script.cljs"]
#js [#js ["foo" "bar"]]
true
$ ls
node_modules
package-lock.json
package.json
script.cljs
What does $default mean?
The :default foo
syntax is shadow-cljs only and not supported by vanilla CLJS
(and nbb doesn't support it either). The $default
syntax is a recent addition
to CLJS and should work in shadow-cljs too: this is why nbb supports it too.
See here for more info on that syntax.
Nbb implements :require
via dynamic import (import()
in JS). This is why you
need to add $default
to imports when you want to import the default object
from a module.
Macros
Nbb has first class support for macros: you can define them right inside your .cljs
file, like you are used to from JVM Clojure. Consider the plet
macro to make working with promises more palatable:
(defmacro plet
[bindings & body]
(let [binding-pairs (reverse (partition 2 bindings))
body (cons 'do body)]
(reduce (fn [body [sym expr]]
(let [expr (list '.resolve 'js/Promise expr)]
(list '.then expr (list 'clojure.core/fn (vector sym)
body))))
body
binding-pairs)))
Using this macro we can make async code look more like sync code. Consider this puppeteer example:
(-> (.launch puppeteer)
(.then (fn [browser]
(-> (.newPage browser)
(.then (fn [page]
(-> (.goto page "https://clojure.org")
(.then #(.screenshot page #js{:path "screenshot.png"}))
(.catch #(js/console.log %))
(.then #(.close browser)))))))))
Using plet
this becomes:
(plet [browser (.launch puppeteer)
page (.newPage browser)
_ (.goto page "https://clojure.org")
_ (-> (.screenshot page #js{:path "screenshot.png"})
(.catch #(js/console.log %)))]
(.close browser))
See the puppeteer example for the full code.
Since v0.0.36, nbb includes promesa which is a library to deal with
promises. The above plet
macro is similar to promesa.core/let
.
Startup time
$ time nbb -e '(+ 1 2 3)'
6
nbb -e '(+ 1 2 3)' 0.17s user 0.02s system 109% cpu 0.168 total
The baseline startup time for a script is about 170ms seconds on my laptop. When
invoked via npx
this adds another 300ms or so, so for faster startup, either
use a globally installed nbb
or use $(npm bin)/nbb script.cljs
to bypass
npx
.
Dependencies
NPM dependencies
Nbb does not depend on any NPM dependencies. All NPM libraries loaded by a script are resolved relative to that script. When using the Reagent module, React is resolved in the same way as any other NPM library.
Classpath
To load .cljs
files from local paths or dependencies, you can use the
--classpath
argument. The current dir is added to the classpath automatically.
So if there is a file foo/bar.cljs
relative to your current dir, then you can
load it via (:require [foo.bar :as fb])
. Note that nbb
uses the same naming
conventions for namespaces and directories as other Clojure tools: foo-bar
in
the namespace name becomes foo_bar
in the directory name.
To load dependencies from the Clojure ecosystem, you can use the Clojure CLI or babashka to download them and produce a classpath:
$ classpath="$(clojure -A:nbb -Spath -Sdeps '{:aliases {:nbb {:replace-deps {com.github.seancorfield/honeysql {:git/tag "v2.0.0-rc5" :git/sha "01c3a55"}}}}}')"
and then feed it to the --classpath
argument:
$ nbb --classpath "$classpath" -e "(require '[honey.sql :as sql]) (sql/format {:select :foo :from :bar :where [:= :baz 2]})"
["SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE baz = ?" 2]
Currently nbb
only reads from directories, not jar files, so you are
encouraged to use git libs. Support for .jar
files will be added later. You
can find a workaround for that here.
Current file
The name of the file that is currently being executed is available via
nbb.core/*file*
or on the metadata of vars:
(ns foo
(:require [nbb.core :refer [*file*]]))
(prn *file*) ;; "/private/tmp/foo.cljs"
(defn f [])
(prn (:file (meta #'f))) ;; "/private/tmp/foo.cljs"
Reagent
Nbb includes reagent.core
which will be lazily loaded when required. You
can use this together with ink to create
a TUI application:
$ npm install ink
ink-demo.cljs
:
(ns ink-demo
(:require ["ink" :refer [render Text]]
[reagent.core :as r]))
(defonce state (r/atom 0))
(doseq [n (range 1 11)]
(js/setTimeout #(swap! state inc) (* n 500)))
(defn hello []
[:> Text {:color "green"} "Hello, world! " @state])
(render (r/as-element [hello]))
Working with promises
Promesa
Working with callbacks and promises can become tedious. Since nbb v0.0.36 the
promesa.core
namespace is included with the let
and do!
macros. An example:
(ns prom
(:require [promesa.core :as p]))
(defn sleep [ms]
(js/Promise.
(fn [resolve _]
(js/setTimeout resolve ms))))
(defn do-stuff
[]
(p/do!
(println "Doing stuff which takes a while")
(sleep 1000)
1))
(p/let [a (do-stuff)
b (inc a)
c (do-stuff)
d (+ b c)]
(prn d))
$ nbb prom.cljs
Doing stuff which takes a while
Doing stuff which takes a while
3
Also see API docs.
REPL
In the REPL it can be convenient to bind the resolved value of promises to a var. You can do that like this:
(defmacro defp [binding expr]
`(-> ~expr (.then (fn [val]
(def ~binding val)))))
(defp browser (.launch puppeteer #js {:headless false}))
(defp page (.newPage browser))
(.goto page "https://clojure.org")
Cljs-bean
Since nbb v0.1.0 cljs-bean is available.
See the example for an example.
Js-interop
Since nbb v0.0.75 applied-science/js-interop is available:
(ns example
(:require [applied-science.js-interop :as j]))
(def o (j/lit {:a 1 :b 2 :c {:d 1}}))
(prn (j/select-keys o [:a :b])) ;; #js {:a 1, :b 2}
(prn (j/get-in o [:c :d])) ;; 1
Most of this library is supported in nbb, except the following:
- destructuring using
:syms
- property access using
.-x
notation. In nbb, you must use keywords.
See the example of what is currently supported.
Reader conditionals
Nbb supports the following reader conditional features: :org.babashka/nbb
and
:cljs
in that order of priority:
#?(:org.babashka/nbb 1 :cljs 2) ;;=> 1
#?(:cljs 2 :org.babashka/nbb 1) ;;=> 2
Main function
It is possible to use the -main
function as the software (script) start point when using the m
parameter of nbb
passing your software namespace.
(ns example)
(defn -main
[& args]
(prn "print in -main"))
Execute:
nbb -m example
Testing
See doc/testing.
REPL
Console REPL
To start a console REPL, simply run nbb
.
Socket REPL
To start a socket server REPL, run:
$ nbb socket-repl :port 1337
REPL API
Nbb exposes the nbb.repl
namespace to programmatically start a REPL. See
API for more info. An example:
(ns example
(:require [nbb.repl :as repl]
[promesa.core :as p]))
(defn available-in-repl [] :yolo)
(p/do!
(repl/repl)
;; type (available-in-repl) in the REPL and it will return :yolo
(println "The end"))
The repl
function returns a promise. The promesa.core/do!
macro waits for the REPL to finish and after that "The end"
is printed:
$ nbb example.cljs
example=> (available-in-repl)
:yolo
example=> The end
To launch a REPL from a Node.js script, you can use loadString
or loadFile
:
import { loadString } from 'nbb'
await loadString(`
(require '[nbb.repl :refer [repl]])
(repl)
`)
console.log('The end!')
$ node repl.mjs
user=> (+ 1 2 3)
6
user=> The end!
nREPL
The nREPL server probably still has rough edges. Please report issues here.
An nREPL server can be started with:
$ nbb nrepl-server :port 1337
After that you can connect using an nREPL client:
$ lein repl :connect 1337
and evaluate expressions.
Running nREPL in Docker container is supported with the optional :host
argument.
$ nbb nrepl-server :port 1337 :host 0.0.0.0
Calva
In Calva connect to the REPL with:
- Connect to a Running REPL Server not in Project > ClojureScript nREPL server
CIDER
Currently CIDER needs the following workaround.
Vim Iced
See this tweet.
Projects using nbb
The following projects are using nbb or are supporting it as a development platform:
- c64core: retrocompute aesthetics twitter bot.
- sitefox: Node.js + CLJS backend web framework.
- unminify: unminifies JS stacktrace errors.
- nbb-serverless-example: AWS serverless example using nbb
- clojure-quiz: ClojureScript fancy terminal game
- monotropic: Monochromatic light theme for VSCode
- devsoutinho/labs: Flutter universal project + CLJS as backend web framework on top of GraphQL
- nbb-logseq: A custom version of nbb with additional features enabled
- graph-validator: Github action to validate logseq notes using nbb-logseq
Examples
- See the examples directory for small examples.
- gallery.cljs: script to download walpapers from windowsonearth.org.
- nbb-action-example: example of a Github action built with nbb.
API
See API documentation with a list of built-in libraries.
Videos
- Write Node using Clojure and deploy to NPM! by Daniel Amber and Michiel Borkent
- Nbb: ad-hoc scripting for Clojure on Node.js by Michiel Borkent
- Create a Clojure web app using nbb and the Express node framework by Bobby Towers
-
🇧🇷 - Get Started: Segunda Linguagem ROUBANDO mais CORAÇÃO Dos Devs Mundialmente by Mario Souto (DevSoutinho)
Articles
- Create a blog with Clojure, nbb, and MarkDoc by Alexander Carls
- Sentiment analysis with nbb by Jim Clark
- Reloaded workflow with nbb and Express.js by Daniel Fitzpatrick
- Serverless site analytics with Clojure nbb and AWS by Cyprien Pannier
- Creating an AWS Lambda function with nbb by Michiel Borkent
- Prerendering React in ClojureScript land by Arthur Barroso
Podcasts
- Nbb with Michiel Borkent on the ClojureStream podcast with Jacek Schae
Migrating to shadow-cljs
See this gist on how to convert an nbb script or project to shadow-cljs.
Publishing an nbb project to npm
See Publishing an nbb project to npm.
Creating a standalone executable with caxa
See Creating a standalone executable with caxa.
Nbb on AWS Lambda
See Nbb on AWS Lambda.
Nbb on Google Cloud Functions
See Nbb on Google Cloud Functions.
Develop
Nbb on fly.io
See Deploying an nbb app to fly.io.
Build
Prequisites:
- babashka >= 0.4.0
- Clojure CLI >= 1.10.3.933
- Node.js 16.5.0 (lower version may work, but this is the one I used to build)
To build:
- Clone and cd into this repo
bb release
Run bb tasks
for more project-related tasks.
Credits
- Original babashka logo by Nikita Prokopov. Node.js modifications by MnRa.
License
Copyright © 2021-2022 Michiel Borkent
Distributed under the EPL License. See LICENSE.