nodejs-best-practices

Choose a Node.js framework based on deployment target and context: Hono for edge and serverless, Fastify for high-performance APIs, NestJS for enterprise structure, and Express for legacy or maximum ecosystem. Ask about cold start needs, team experience, and existing code first.

Fastify is 2-3x faster than Express and has excellent TypeScript support, making it better for performance-critical APIs. Express has the largest middleware ecosystem and lowest learning curve, suiting legacy codebases and learning projects.

Node.js 22+ supports running TypeScript files directly using the --experimental-strip-types flag, removing the build step for simple projects. This works well for scripts and simple APIs but may not suit larger projects needing full compilation.

Use Promise.all for parallel independent operations where any failure should reject the whole batch. Use Promise.allSettled when running parallel operations where some can fail without affecting the others, since it returns all outcomes.

Async/await only helps I/O-bound work like database queries and HTTP requests because it frees the event loop during waiting. CPU-bound tasks like crypto or image processing block the event loop regardless, so offload them to worker threads.

Best practice checklists provide decision-making principles, not fixed code to copy, and cannot replace environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review. Apply them only when the task matches the described scope and ask for clarification when requirements are unclear.