vigoo's software development blog - nodejs

Golem 1.5 features - Part 4: Node.js compatibility

2026-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Introduction</h2>
I am writing a series of short</em> posts showcasing the new features of Golem 1.5</strong>, to be released at the end of April, 2026. The episodes of this series will be short and assume the reader knows what Golem is. Check my other Golem-related posts</a> for more information!</p>
Parts released so far:</p>

Part 1: Code-first routes</a></li>
Part 2: Webhooks</a></li>
Part 3: MCP</a></li>
Part 4: Node.js compatibility</a></li>
Part 5: Scala support</a></li> </ul>
JS/TS support</h2>
The previous release introduced our new QuickJS based JavaScript engine</strong> and supported using TypeScript</strong> for writing Golem applications. The runtime itself and the Golem SDK already worked well, however not many of the third party libraries of the JS/TS ecosystem were compatible with our runtime. We have put a lot of effort into increasing our runtime's compatibility with both browser APIs and Node.js modules.</p>
Previously supported</h3>
The runtime shipped with the last Golem release supported the following APIs:</p>

Good support for: `Console</code>, HTTP (fetch</code>), URL</code>, Streams, Timeout functions, Encoding, Crypto</code></li>`
`Very limited support for parts of node:util</code>, node:buffer</code>, node:fs</code>, node:path</code>, node:process</code> and node:stream</code></li>`
`base64-js, ieee754</li> </ul>`
The current state</h3>
During the development of Golem 1.5</strong>, we took Node.js's own test suite and tried to reach as high compatibility as possible with our runtime. Of course it cannot support it 100%, given the constraints of running on a different JS engine, in a single-threaded, sandboxed WASM environment. Still, we were able to implement a large part of Node.js's modules, tested some third party libraries extensively by hand and verified hundreds via automated coding agents.</p>
The summary of what we have now:</p>

Web Platform APIs: `Console</code>, HTTP (fetch</code>), URL</code>, Streams, Timers, Abort Controller, Encoding, Messaging, Events, Intl</code>, Crypto</code> (global), Structured Clone</li>`
`Node modules:`

`node:assert</code></li>`
`node:async_hooks</code></li>`
`node:buffer</code></li>`
`node:constants</code></li>`
`node:crypto</code></li>`
`node:diagnostics_channel</code> (implemented through Golem's invocation context APIs)</li>`
`node:dgram</code></li>`
`node:dns</code></li>`
`node:domain</code></li>`
`node:events</code></li>`
`node:fs</code></li>`
`node:fs/promises</code></li>`
`node:http</code></li>`
`node:https</code></li>`
`node:module</code></li>`
`node:net</code></li>`
`node:os</code></li>`
`node:path</code></li>`
`node:perf_hooks</code></li>`
`node:process</code></li>`
`node:punycode</code></li>`
`node:querystring</code></li>`
`node:readline</code></li>`
`node:sqlite</code></li>`
`node:stream</code></li>`
`node:string_decoder</code></li>`
`node:test</code></li>`
`node:timers</code></li>`
`node:trace_events</code></li>`
`node:tty</code></li>`
`node:url</code></li>`
`node:util</code></li>`
`node:vm</code></li>`
`node:zlib</code></li> </ul> </li>`
Defined (to satisfy imports) but not implemented: node:child_process</code> (not possible in our current WASM runtime)</li> node:cluster</code></li> node:inspector</code></li> node:http2</code> (not possible in our current WASM runtime)</li> node:repl</code></li> node:tls</code></li> node:v8</code> (not running on V8)</li> node:worker_threads</code> (not possible in our current WASM runtime)</li> </ul> </li> </ul> More information</h3> For more information you can take a look at the vendored Node.js test compatibility report</a> and the automated library compatibility test report</a>.</p> After Golem 1.5</strong> is released, we are going to further increase the compatibility of this runtime; please report any compatibility issues, real-world problems are going to be taken as highest priority.</p>