Standard Library (bee:std)
Zero-dependency, production-grade official stdlib: dotenv, terminal CLI, filesystem, cryptography & assertions
1. Why an Official Standard Library?
In the traditional Node.js ecosystem, even the most basic tasks—loading a .env file, printing colored tables to the terminal, generating UUIDs, recursively copying folders, or making deep equality assertions—require third-party npm packages like dotenv, chalk, cli-table, uuid, or fs-extra. This leads to bloated node_modules, slow cold starts, and supply chain security vulnerabilities.
Beejs introduces the bee:std official standard library: all utilities are natively implemented in Rust for maximum execution speed, safety, and zero external npm dependencies.
2. Modules & Import Conventions
You can import through the unified namespace or granular submodules:
// Unified import
import { dotenv, cli, fs, crypto, assert } from 'bee:std';
// Granular submodule imports
import { config, parse } from 'bee:std/dotenv';
import { colors, table, ProgressBar } from 'bee:std/cli';
import { walk, copyDir } from 'bee:std/fs';
import { uuidv4, uuidv7, jwt } from 'bee:std/crypto';
import { assertEquals, assertThrows } from 'bee:std/assert';
3. Submodule Details
1. bee:std/dotenv Environment Config
Loads and parses .env files with comment filtering, quote stripping, and variable interpolation (${VAR}).
import { config, parse } from 'bee:std/dotenv';
// Automatically loads .env in the current directory and injects into process.env
config();
// Or specify a custom path
config({ path: './config/.env.production' });
// Parse raw text
const envVars = parse(`
PORT=8080
DATABASE_URL=sqlite://${process.env.HOME}/app.db
`);
console.log('Port:', process.env.PORT);
2. bee:std/cli Terminal Styling & Interaction
Out-of-the-box ANSI coloring, Unicode box tables, and interactive terminal widgets:
import { colors, table, ProgressBar } from 'bee:std/cli';
// 1. Text styling
console.log(colors.green(colors.bold('✔ Deployment successful!')));
console.log(colors.yellow('⚠ Warning: High memory usage detected'));
// 2. Unicode table formatter
const headers = ['Package', 'Version', 'Status'];
const rows = [
['beejs', 'v1.16.0', colors.green('Active')],
['sqlite', 'v3.45', colors.green('Active')],
];
console.log(table(headers, rows));
// 3. Progress bar indicator
const bar = new ProgressBar(100);
for (let i = 0; i <= 100; i += 20) {
bar.update(i);
}
3. bee:std/fs High-Level Filesystem
Extends built-in filesystem operations with recursive directory walking and manipulation:
import { walk, copyDir, emptyDir } from 'bee:std/fs';
// 1. Recursively walk directory and filter by extensions
const tsFiles = walk('./src', { extensions: ['ts', 'tsx'] });
console.log('All TypeScript files:', tsFiles);
// 2. Recursively copy directory tree
copyDir('./templates', './dist/project');
// 3. Empty directory contents while keeping the directory itself
emptyDir('./temp_cache');
4. bee:std/crypto Cryptography & Tokens
Provides UUID v4 (random), UUID v7 (time-ordered monotonic, ideal for database keys), and JWT authentication:
import { uuidv4, uuidv7, jwt, hash } from 'bee:std/crypto';
// 1. Generate UUIDs
const id = uuidv4();
const timeOrderedId = uuidv7(); // Perfect for B-Tree index keys
// 2. JWT (HMAC-SHA256) sign and verify
const secret = 'beejs-super-secret-key';
const token = jwt.sign({ userId: 1001, role: 'admin' }, secret, { expiresIn: 3600 });
console.log('Generated JWT:', token);
// Verify token
const payload = jwt.verify(token, secret);
console.log('Decoded payload:', payload.userId, payload.role);
// 3. Fast cryptographic hashing
console.log('SHA-256:', hash('hello world', 'sha256'));
5. bee:std/assert Lightweight Assertions
Clear error reporting and deep equality checks:
import { assert, assertEquals, assertThrows } from 'bee:std/assert';
assert(1 + 1 === 2, 'Math must hold');
assertEquals({ a: 1, b: [2, 3] }, { a: 1, b: [2, 3] });
assertThrows(() => {
throw new Error('Expected failure');
}, 'Expected failure');