Node.js 24 has officially arrived, and it’s bringing a rather tasty selection of improvements to the table.
If you’re a developer knee-deep in web apps or wrestling with asynchronous code, this release is one for you. It’s all about making Node.js quicker on its feet, more versatile, and even more in tune with the latest JavaScript standards.
V8 engine revs up to 13.6
So, what’s making Node.js 24 tick? A big part of it is the V8 JavaScript engine – yep, the same workhorse you find in Google Chrome – which has been upgraded to version 13.6. This isn’t just a version bump; it unlocks some rather nifty JavaScript features:
- RegExp.escape: Ever found yourself manually trying to escape characters for regular expressions? Well, RegExp.escape is here to make that process simpler and a whole lot safer. No more DIY escape functions!
- Float16Array: For those dabbling in graphics, machine learning, or anything else that needs to be super careful with memory and performance, there’s a new typed array for handling 16-bit floats.
- Atomics.pause: If you’re getting into the nitty-gritty of low-level concurrency with Workers, this gives you a way to pause threads, offering finer control.
- WebAssembly Memory64: Good news for WebAssembly users! There’s now 64-bit memory support, which means more grunt for those high-performance, almost-native tasks.
- “Explicit Resource Management await using”: This one’s a bit of a mouthful, but it’s crucial. It’s all about ensuring that resources – think files or network sockets – get cleaned up automatically. Proper tidy.
- Error.isError: A handy little utility, this one. It lets you easily check if something is actually an Error object, which can save you a headache when it comes to robust error handling.
Why should you care about all this V8 magic? Well, it brings Node.js even closer to what modern JavaScript looks like in your browser and in the latest spec proposals. That translates to a smoother developer experience (DX, as the cool kids say), less faffing about with boilerplate code, and generally more a powerful toolkit.
Permission Model grows up and URLPattern goes global
Remember the experimental Permission Model that first popped up in Node.js 20? It’s evolving. The command-line flag has shifted from –experimental-permission to –permission in Node.js 24. This might seem like a small change, but it signals that it’s getting more stable and ready for people to actually start using it more widely.
If you’re not familiar, the Permission Model lets you restrict what your Node.js app can access—like poking around the filesystem or making network calls. It’s a big win for anyone who takes security seriously.
Here’s a nice little convenience: URLPattern. This API helps you define patterns to match against URLs or bits of URLs. Previously, you’d have to import it. Now? You can just use it directly, much like a good old URL.
Developers can now specify patterns like /users/:id for routing logic without needing that extra import step. This is brilliant for routing, matching URLs, or building any kind of URL-handling tool. It’s a more powerful and, frankly, more elegant solution than wrestling with regular expressions for these kinds of jobs.
Node.js 24 introduces a smarter built-in test runner
The built-in test runner is getting some love too. One of the standout improvements is that it now automatically waits for subtests to finish.
Before this, you had to be careful to manually use an await instruction with each subtest to ensure it completed before the main test concluded. If you forgot this step, your test runner might just pack up and go home before your subtests were done, leading to some properly confusing or flaky results.
With Node.js 24, that manual await for each subtest is no longer necessary. The runner intelligently handles them, ensuring both subtests will run and complete properly before the test runner calls it a day. This makes writing tests simpler and less prone to those subtle, easy-to-miss errors, which is especially helpful if you’re thinking of switching to the built-in runner from another framework.
HTTP client gets a boost with Undici 7.0.0 while npm jumps to v11
Node 24 now includes Undici 7.0.0. For those not in the know, Undici is Node’s modern HTTP client. This upgrade means better support for the latest HTTP standards and a generally smoother ride if you’re using fetch() or building services that make a lot of HTTP requests.
And of course, what’s a Node.js release without an npm update? Node 24 ships with npm v11, bringing with it:
- Quicker installs (always a crowd-pleaser)
- Improved security checks
- Better harmony with modern package ecosystems
- A heads-up: npm now expects node ^20.17.0 || >=22.9.0
- When you run npm init, it now has a type prompt, and it organises the entries in the package.json it creates a bit differently
- The npm hook command has been given the boot
- The –ignore-scripts flag now casts a wider net, applying to all lifecycle scripts, including prepare
- If the bulk advisory request for security audits fails, npm will no longer try the old audit endpoint as a fallback
Spring cleaning: Deprecations and removals with Node.js 24
As Node.js moves forward, some older bits and bobs are being tidied away or marked for future removal:
- url.parse() is on its way out; the WHATWG URL API is the recommended replacement.
- Things like SlowBuffer and tls.createSecurePair are now deprecated.
- Older-style filesystem constants, such as fs.F_OK, are also being phased out.
If you’re looking after older codebases, it’s worth keeping an eye on these and planning any necessary updates.
Node.js 24 isn’t just another number, it’s a pretty big step forward in terms of performance, security, and making life easier for developers. This release brings some genuinely practical tools that can simplify your day-to-day coding.
(Photo by Jan Canty)
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