What is node-addon-api?

This repository provides a set of C++ helper files that make it easier to write native add-ons for Node.js. Node.js normally runs JavaScript, but sometimes developers want to call code written in C++ for performance reasons or to access system-level features. To do that, they need to interface with Node-API, which is the official way Node.js exposes its internals to native code. That interface is written in C, which can be verbose and tricky to use directly. This module wraps that C interface with cleaner C++ classes and adds proper error-handling patterns, making the same work significantly less tedious. The wrapper is header-only, meaning it consists of files you include in your project rather than a separate library you compile and link against. This keeps the overhead low. The module is versioned alongside Node-API versions, and add-ons built with it can run across multiple versions of Node.js as long as the targeted Node-API version is supported by the Node.js version in use. The current release is version 8.8.0, and it supports Node.js 18 and newer. Each major release of node-addon-api eventually drops support for Node.js versions that have reached end of life, following the active long-term-support schedule. The repository is maintained by a small team of contributors listed in the README. Documentation for the full API lives in the doc folder. The project is licensed under MIT and welcomes contributions following the guidelines in the CONTRIBUTING file.