Why Node.js libraries aren't promises by default
Why Node.js libraries aren't promises by default launched on January 3, 2020 with 9 votes, #922 of 3,486 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 6 years on.
What it does
“Why does the AWS node sdk have this .promise() function that you can chain onto all its methods? Why doesn’t it just return a promise by default?” “How do they do that? (support both callbacks by default and a .promise() method)” I realised these were two excellent questions to trigger an explanation of why and where we are with promises and node. On researching this topic I learnt about a fascinating issue with node and promises. So this one’s for you, Ravish! “Why doesn’t the AWS node sdk just return a promise by default?” A simplistic answer to this is it’s because for a long time, before promises existed, the Node.js community settled on a convention that allows us to predictably deal…from nickmeldrum.com
Does a similar job
all alternatives →- ANA Node.js stream library that works with promises2018 · npmjs.com · ▲10
- DSDamn simple and useful promise pool for Node.js2020 · npmjs.com · ▲5
Nub – A Bun-like all-in-one toolkit for Node.jsJun 2026 · github.com · ▲277Colin here, creator of Nub. I’ve had the general shape of this in mind for years. Nub runs your code with stock `node`, augmented with a `--require` preload hook[0] that adds a transpiler (oxc-powered, packaged as a Node-API add-on), registers a module resolution hook[1], and injects polyfills as needed for APIs like `Worker`, `Temporal`, etc. All purely additive, your code ultimately runs using Node’s actual engine & stdlib implementations. [0] https://nodejs.org/api/cli.html#-require-module [1]…
And then...2013 · github.com · ▲14A minimal CommonJS promises library with useful things like parallel execution, fulfilments and exception handling, while retaining the beautiful simplicity of .then(). - askabt/andthen
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