Technical values and priorities

The project uses these technical values to establish priorities and guide collaboration.

Values and priority level

Priority 1 - Developer experience
Priority 2 - Stability
Priority 3 - Operational qualities
Priority 4 - Node.js maintainer experience
Priority 5 - Up to date Technology and APIs

Value descriptions

1 - Developer experience

We value ensuring that developers are productive and enjoy developing with Node.js. Some key elements of this include:

Approachability (both technical and community)
Great documentation
Bundling friction-reducing APIs and components, even though they could be provided externally
Enabling/supporting external packages to ensure overall developer experience

2 - Stability

Whenever possible, we seek to ensure that working code continues to work. To keep the trust of developers and users, we value stability. Some key elements of this include:

Backward compatibility
Stable releases on a predictable schedule
A strong safety net, including testing how changes in Node.js affect popular packages
Careful consideration of what goes into long term support (LTS) releases

3 - Operational qualities

We value keeping Node.js safe, performant, and lightweight. We value enabling the ability to investigate and debug problems in development and production. Some key elements of this include:

High throughput (speed)
Fast startup
Small binary size
Small memory footprint
High-quality debugging tools
Robust diagnostic tools (profilers, etc.)
Responsible security practices

4 - Node.js maintainer experience

We value the productivity and happiness of the Node.js maintainers. Some key elements of this include:

Approachability of the codebase
Good internal documentation and guides
Low-friction policies and processes
Good CI and tooling to make maintainers productive

5 - Up to date Technology and APIs

We value providing developers with modern APIs and technologies following existing standards whenever possible. Some key elements of this include:

Participating in standards work and organizations
Web API compatibility
Supporting and exposing new technologies and standards through early adoption