💨 serverless-esbuild

Serverless Framework plugin for zero-config JavaScript and TypeScript code bundling using promising fast & furious esbuild bundler and minifier


Features

- Zero-config: Works out of the box without the need to install any additional plugins
- Works with Typescript and Javascript projects
- Guaranteed to work in Node.js v18 and higher environments
- Supports sls package, sls deploy, sls deploy function
- Integrates with Serverless Invoke Local & serverless-offline

Table of Contents

- Install
- Configuration
- Examples
- Options
- Default Esbuild Options
- Packager Options
- Watch Options
- Supported Runtimes
- Advanced Configuration
- Including Extra Files
- External Dependencies
- Esbuild Plugins
- Usage
- Automatic Compilation
- Serverless Offline
- Serverless Dynamodb Local
- Invoke Local
- External Tools
- Contributors

Install

``sh


install serverless-esbuild and esbuild

yarn add --dev serverless-esbuild esbuild

or

npm install -D serverless-esbuild esbuild

or

pnpm install -D serverless-esbuild esbuild
`

Add the following plugin to your serverless.yml:

`yaml
plugins:
- serverless-esbuild
`

Configuration

By default, no configuration is required, but you can override the default behavior via the custom.esbuild section in the serverless.yml file.

`yml
custom:
esbuild:
bundle: true
minify: false
`

$3

See example folder for some example configurations.

$3

| Option | Description | Default |
|------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|
| Esbuild Options | This plugin can take almost any Esbuild Javascript Build Option. | Default Esbuild Options |
| concurrency | The number of concurrent bundle operations to run at once. eg. 8. _NOTE_: This can be memory intensive and could produce slower builds. | Infinity |
| zipConcurrency | The number of concurrent zip operations to run at once. eg. 8. _NOTE_: This can be memory intensive and could produce slower builds. | Infinity |
| exclude | An array of dependencies to exclude from the Lambda. This is passed to the esbuild external option. Set to * to disable packaging node_modules | ['aws-sdk'] |
| installExtraArgs | Optional arguments passed to npm or yarn for external dependency resolution. eg. ['--legacy-peer-deps'] for npm v7+ to use legacy peerDependency resolution behavior | [] |
| keepOutputDirectory | Keeps the .esbuild output folder. Useful for debugging. | false |
| nativeZip | Uses the system's zip executable to create archives. _NOTE_: This will produce non-deterministic archives which causes a Serverless deployment update on every deploy. | false |
| outputBuildFolder | The output folder for Esbuild builds within the work folder. You will also need to manually override the watch ignore config if used. | '.build' |
| outputWorkFolder | The output folder for this plugin where all the bundle preparation is done. You will also need to manually override the watch ignore config if used. | '.esbuild' |
| outputFileExtension | The file extension used for the bundled output file. This will override the esbuild outExtension option | '.js' |
| packagePath | Path to the package.json file for external dependency resolution. | './package.json' |
| packager | Packager to use for external dependency resolution. Values: npm, yarn, pnpm | 'npm' |
| packagerOptions | Extra options for packagers for external dependency resolution. | Packager Options |
| watch | Watch options for serverless-offline. | Watch Options |
| skipBuild | Avoid rebuilding lambda artifacts in favor of reusing previous build artifacts. | false |
| skipRebuild | A boolean defining whether rebuild is avoided. Generally rebuild produces faster builds but in some context scenarios with many lambdas or low memory computer (like Github Actions) it can cause memory leaks. | false |
| skipBuildExcludeFns | An array of lambda names that will always be rebuilt if skipBuild is set to true and bundling individually. This is helpful for dynamically generated functions like serverless-plugin-warmup. | [] |
| stripEntryResolveExtensions | A boolean that determines if entrypoints using custom file extensions provided in the resolveExtensions ESbuild setting should be stripped of their custom extension upon packing the final bundle for that file. Example: myLambda.custom.ts would result in myLambda.js instead of myLambda.custom.js.
| disposeContext | An option to disable the disposal of the context.(Functions can override the global disposeContext configuration by specifying their own disposeContext option in their individual configurations.) | true
#### Default Esbuild Options

The following esbuild options are automatically set.

| Option | Default | Notes |
| ------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| bundle | true | Esbuild requires this for use with external |
| entryPoints | N/A | Cannot be overridden |
| outDir | N/A | Cannot be overridden |
| platform | 'node' | Set format to esm to enable ESM support |
| target | 'node18' | We dynamically set this. See Supported Runtimes |
| watch | N/A | Cannot be overridden |

#### Packager Options

| Option | Description | Default |
| ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- |
| scripts | A string or array of scripts to be executed, currently only supports 'scripts' for npm, pnpm and yarn | undefined |
| noInstall | [Yarn only] A boolean that deactivates the install step | false |
| ignoreLockfile | [Yarn, npm only] A boolean to bypass lockfile validation, typically paired with external dependencies because we generate a new package.json with only the externalized dependencies. | false |

#### Watch Options

| Option | Description | Default |
| ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| pattern | An anymatch-compatible definition for the watcher to respond to | ./*/.(js\|ts) (watches all .js and .ts files) |
| ignore | An anymatch-compatible definition for the watcher to ignore | ['.esbuild', 'dist', 'node_modules', '.build'] |
| chokidar | Any Chokidar option | { ignoreInitial: true } |

#### Function Options

| Option | Description | Default |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- |
| skipEsbuild | Set this property to true on a function definition to skip esbuild | undefined |

Supported Runtimes

This plugin will automatically set the esbuild target for the following supported Serverless runtimes:

$3

| Runtime | Target |
| ------------ | -------- |
| nodejs22.x | node22 |
| nodejs20.x | node20 |
| nodejs18.x | node18 |
| nodejs16.x | node16 |
| nodejs14.x | node14 |
| nodejs12.x | node12 |

$3

This plugin is compatible with the serverless-google-cloudfunctions plugin, and will set the runtimes accordingly.

| Runtime | Target |
| ------------ | -------- |
| nodejs24 | node24 |
| nodejs22 | node22 |
| nodejs20 | node20 |
| nodejs18 | node18 |
| nodejs16 | node16 |
| nodejs14 | node14 |
| nodejs12 | node12 |

$3

This plugin is compatible with the serverless-azure-functions plugin, and will set the runtimes accordingly.

| Runtime | Target |
| ------------ | -------- |
| nodejs18 | node18 |
| nodejs16 | node16 |
| nodejs14 | node14 |
| nodejs12 | node12 |

Please Note When using this package in conjunction with the serverless-azure-functions plugin, the following additional configuration is required to ensure function apps are built correctly:

`yml
package:
patterns: ["host.json", "**/function.json"],
`

$3

If you wish to use this plugin alongside non Node functions like Python or functions with images, this plugin will automatically ignore any function which does not contain a handler or use a supported Node.js runtime.

_Note:_ If you are using Python functions with Serverless Offline you will need to change the outputWorkFolder and outputBuildFolder to folder names without fullstops.

Advanced Configuration

$3

Esbuild configuration can be defined by a config file.

`yml
custom:
esbuild:
config: './esbuild.config.js'
`

`js
// esbuild.config.js
module.exports = (serverless) => ({
external: ['lodash'],
plugins: [],
});
`

$3

Serverless Package Configuration will behave in the same way as native packaging. You can use patterns, include and exclude to include extra files into your bundles.

$3

Packages that are marked as external and exist in the package.json's dependencies will be installed and included with your build under node_modules. You can customize this with a number of options.

`yml
custom:
esbuild:
external:
- lodash
packager: yarn
packagePath: absolute/path/to/package.json
packagerOptions:
scripts:
- echo 'Hello World!'
- rm -rf node_modules
installExtraArgs:
- '--legacy-peer-deps'
`

To easily mark all the dependencies in package.json as external, you can utilize esbuild-node-externals plugin.

To mark one or more individual packages as external, use the following configuration:

`yml
custom:
esbuild:
external:
- 'my-package-name'
- 'another-package-name'
`

$3

_Note: The Esbuild plugins API is still experimental_

You can configure esbuild plugins by passing a plugins' configuration file:

`yml
custom:
esbuild:
plugins: plugins.js
`

The plugins' configuration file must be a javascript file exporting an array of plugins (see examples/individually/plugins.js for a dummy plugin example):

`javascript
let myPlugin = {
name: 'my-plugin',
setup(build) {
// plugin implementation
},
};

// default export should be an array of plugins
module.exports = [myPlugin];
`

or a function that accepts serverless instance and returns an array of plugins (see issue #168 for an example):

`javascript
module.exports = (serverless) => {
const myPlugin = {
name: 'my-plugin',
setup(build) {
// plugin implementation with serverless instance access
console.log('sls custom options', serverless.service.custom);
},
};

// an array of plugins must be returned
return [myPlugin];
};
`

Usage

$3

As long as the plugin is properly installed, all regular Serverless operations sls package, sls deploy, sls deploy function, sls invoke local, sls offline will automatically compile using serverless-esbuild.

$3

You can specify a custom entrypoint for ESBuild by specifying the esbuildEntrypoint field in your function definition.
`typescript
export const myLambdaFunction = {
handler: '/opt/nodejs/node_modules/my_custom_extension/handler.handler',
esbuildEntrypoint: './handler.main',
};
`

$3

The plugin integrates very well with serverless-offline to
simulate AWS Lambda and AWS API Gateway locally.

Add the plugins to your serverless.yml file and make sure that serverless-esbuild
precedes serverless-offline as the order is important:

`yaml
plugins: ...
- serverless-esbuild
...
- serverless-offline
...
`

Run serverless offline or serverless offline start to start the Lambda/API simulation.

In comparison to serverless offline, the start command will fire an init and a end lifecycle hook which is needed for serverless-offline and e.g. serverless-dynamodb-local to switch off resources (see below)

Automatic compilation is available while using the plugin with serverless-offline.

`yml
custom:
esbuild:
watch:
pattern: ['src/*/.ts'] # match only typescript files in src directory
ignore: ['temp/*/']
`

Note: When overriding the ignore pattern, remember to ignore .build directory to avoid endless compilation.

#### Serverless Dynamodb Local

Configure your service the same as mentioned above, but additionally add the serverless-dynamodb-local
plugin as follows:

`yaml
plugins:
- serverless-esbuild
- serverless-dynamodb-local
- serverless-offline
`

Run serverless offline start.

$3

This plugin supports the Serverless Invoke Local functionality and will automatically compile the selected function.

External Tools

- serverless-analyze-bundle-plugin`: a plugin that allow users to analyze the bundle of a lambda

Contributors

Victor Korzunin 💬 💻 📖 💡 🤔 🚇 🚧 🔌 📆 👀 ⚠️ 🔧	Loup Topalian 💬 💻 📖 🚇 🚧 🔌	Sam Chung 💬 💻 📖 💡 🚇 🚧 🔌 👀 🔧	Vamsi Dharmavarapu 💻 📖 💡 🚇 🚧	Eric 💻 🤔 🚧 🚇 👀	Chris 💻 🤔	Martín Acosta 💻
Tony Tyrrell 💻	Matt Jennings 💻	Misha Bruml 💻	François Farge 💻	Sam Hulick 📖	Troy Ready 💻	subash adhikari 💻
Dan Ionescu 💻	gurushida 💻	nickygb 💻	Jiri Spac 💻	gavynriebau 📖	Adrien Cacciaguerra 📖	lulzneko 💻
AOKI Yuuto 💻	Thomas Aribart 🤔	Kory Hutchison 💻 🤔	Chris Hutchinson 💻	Fredrik Möllerstrand 💻	Sander Kooger 💻	Adam Swift 💻
Florian Mayer 💻	Zach Levi 💻

Inspired by serverless-plugin-typescript and serverless-webpack