node-remote-repl

Execute code remotelly via Node.js inspect protocol like Clojure nREPL

Install

npm install -g node-remote-repl

Usage

You can always get help of cli:

node-remote-repl --help

Output:

Usage: node-remote-repl [options] <file>

Options:
  -V, --version        output the version number
  -h, --host <string>  host of inspect protocol (default: "localhost")
  -p, --port <number>  port of inspect protocol (default: 9229)
  -h, --help           display help for command

Ok, it's very easy, create for example repl.js and play with it

node-remote-repl --host some-host --port 9229 repl.js

Some use cases

log to stdout of your remote process

console.log(/* some stuff */)

expose some json from remote process

return JSON.stringify({/* some json */}, null, 2)

use power of require

const util = require('util');
const module = require('./some-module');
return util.inspect(module.method(), {colors: true})

typescript support out of the box

const n: number = 1;
return n;

you can replace implementation on remote side

const Module = require('./some-module');
Module.prototype.method = () => {
  // replace implementation on the fly
};

Promise support on top level

const module = require('./some-module');
const resp = await module.someAsyncMethod();
return resp;

Integration with IDE

Because it simple command line util, you can easy integrate it with your IDE. For example let's do it with Visual Studio Code and Code Runner extension:

• install Code Runner extension to Visual Studio Code
• configure Code Runner to run node-remote-repl in repl.js:

{
  "code-runner.executorMapByGlob": {
    "repl.js": "node-remote-repl --host some-host --port 9229"
  }
}

• profit, now you can fastly run repl via Visual Studio Code
• I hope, some similar stuff exists on all popular IDE

Limitations

• On typescript side need use require instead import stuff. Otherwise, you get error like: ReferenceError: exports is not defined. Example of proper usage:

const someModule = require('./some-module') as typeof import('./some-module');	
return someModule.method({test: true}) // all typing works correctly