node-remote-repl

Node.js remote code execution via inspect protocol

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import nodeRemoteRepl from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/node-remote-repl';
</script>

README

node-remote-repl

Execute code remotelly via Node.js inspect protocol like Clojure nREPL

Install

npm install -g node-remote-repl

Usage

You can always get help of cli:

node-remote-repl --help

Output:

Usage: node-remote-repl [options] <file>

Options:
  -V, --version        output the version number
  -h, --host <string>  host of inspect protocol (default: "localhost")
  -p, --port <number>  port of inspect protocol (default: 9229)
  -h, --help           display help for command

Ok, it's very easy, create for example repl.js and play with it

node-remote-repl --host some-host --port 9229 repl.js

Some use cases

log to stdout of your remote process

const main = async () => {
  console.log(/* some stuff */)
};

expose some json from remote process

const main = async () => {
  return JSON.stringify({/* some json */}, null, 2);
};

use power of require

const main = async () => {
  const util = require('util');
  const module = require('./some-module');
  return util.inspect(module.method(), {colors: true});
};

typescript support out of the box

const main = async () => {
  const n: number = 1;
  return n;
};

you can replace implementation on remote side

const main = async () => {
  const Module = require('./some-module');
  Module.prototype.method = () => {
    // replace implementation on the fly
  };
};

Integration with IDE

Because it simple command line util, you can easy integrate it with your IDE. For example let's do it with Visual Studio Code and Code Runner extension:

  • install Code Runner extension to Visual Studio Code
  • configure Code Runner to run node-remote-repl in repl.js:
{
  "code-runner.executorMapByGlob": {
    "repl.js": "node-remote-repl --host some-host --port 9229"
  }
}
  • profit, now you can fastly run repl via Visual Studio Code
  • I hope, some similar stuff exists on all popular IDE