Uses for Node-API

An existing C/C++ library

Perhaps the most popular use for Node-API is making the capabilities of an existing C/C++ library available to JavaScript programmers. This permits you to leverage the investment you’ve already made in your existing code, making it available to a whole new population of JavaScript programmers and projects.

For many applications, the C/C++ code base is the reference implementation. Node-API permits you to continue to refine and maintain your existing C/C++ code. Improvements to the C/C++ code are then easily transferred to the JavaScript users.

Access to OS resources

Some applications, like those built on Electron or NW.js, can benefit from accessing system toolkits and APIs not currently available through Node. Node-API facilities accessing these system resources.

Computational tasks

For low-powered devices, it may make sense to code computationally intensive tasks in C or C++ and then make that code available to JavaScript using Node-API. Although in many cases Node’s JavaScript runtime engine will eventually compile the JavaScript down to binary, Node-API offers the ability to compile the C/C++ code just once and have the binary available to Node right from the start.