LunarCore Node

LunarCore Node is a TypeScript-first foundational SDK for Node.js backend development. It provides secure, type-safe utilities without coupling to specific frameworks, making it suitable for any Node.js project regardless of the web framework or architecture chosen.

Design Philosophy

TypeScript-First Approach

Every component in LunarCore Node is designed with TypeScript as the primary language. This means:

• Strict type checking throughout the codebase
• Comprehensive type definitions for all APIs
• Full IntelliSense support in compatible editors
• Type inference that minimizes explicit type annotations
• No use of any types in the public API

Security by Default

Security considerations are built into every utility:

• Input validation using Zod schemas
• Automatic redaction of sensitive data in logs
• Safe error serialization that prevents information leaks
• No dynamic code execution (no eval or Function constructors)
• Secure defaults for all configuration options

Framework Agnostic

LunarCore Node provides foundational utilities that work with any Node.js setup:

• No dependencies on Express, Fastify, Koa, or other frameworks
• Compatible with serverless functions
• Works with traditional servers
• Suitable for microservices and monoliths alike

The philosophy is to provide building blocks, not prescribe architecture.

Modular Architecture

Import only what you need:

// Import specific modules
import { createLogger } from '@lunarcore/node/logger';
import { retry } from '@lunarcore/node/async';
import { loadEnv } from '@lunarcore/node/env';

This tree-shaking-friendly approach ensures minimal bundle size and clear dependencies.

Core Modules

Error Handling

The error system provides type-safe error classes with structured context.

Error Hierarchy

AppError (base)
├── ValidationError      // 400 status
├── AuthenticationError  // 401 status
├── AuthorizationError   // 403 status
├── NotFoundError       // 404 status
├── TimeoutError        // 408 status
└── ConfigurationError  // 500 status

Creating Errors

import { ValidationError, NotFoundError } from '@lunarcore/node';

// With context
throw new ValidationError('Invalid email format', {
  email: userInput,
  field: 'email',
  constraint: 'format'
});

// Simple error
throw new NotFoundError('User not found');

Error Properties

Every AppError includes:

• name - Error class name
• message - Human-readable description
• code - Machine-readable error code
• statusCode - HTTP status code
• context - Additional structured data
• timestamp - When the error occurred
• isOperational - Whether the error is expected/recoverable

Type Guards

import { isAppError, isOperationalError } from '@lunarcore/node';

try {
  await operation();
} catch (error) {
  if (isAppError(error)) {
    // TypeScript knows error is AppError
    console.log(error.code, error.statusCode);
    
    if (isOperationalError(error)) {
      // Can retry or handle gracefully
      await handleOperationalError(error);
    } else {
      // Programming error, should not retry
      throw error;
    }
  } else {
    // Unknown error type
    throw error;
  }
}

Custom Error Classes

import { AppError } from '@lunarcore/node';

export class PaymentError extends AppError {
  constructor(message: string, context?: Record<string, unknown>) {
    super(message, 'PAYMENT_ERROR', 402, context);
  }
}

Environment Variables

Schema-based environment variable loading with validation.

Basic Usage

import { loadEnv } from '@lunarcore/node';
import { z } from 'zod';

const env = loadEnv(z.object({
  NODE_ENV: z.enum(['development', 'production', 'test']),
  PORT: z.string().transform(Number),
  API_KEY: z.string().min(20),
  DATABASE_URL: z.string().url(),
}));

// TypeScript knows the exact types
const port: number = env.PORT;
const apiKey: string = env.API_KEY;

Helper Schemas

import { envNumber, envBoolean, envList } from '@lunarcore/node';

const env = loadEnv(z.object({
  // Parse numbers with defaults
  PORT: envNumber.default(3000),
  MAX_CONNECTIONS: envNumber.int().min(1).max(1000),
  
  // Parse booleans (true/false/1/0/yes/no)
  ENABLE_CACHE: envBoolean.default(true),
  DEBUG_MODE: envBoolean,
  
  // Parse comma-separated lists
  ALLOWED_ORIGINS: envList,
  ADMIN_EMAILS: envList.transform(emails => 
    emails.map(e => e.toLowerCase())
  ),
}));

Safe Loading

For cases where you want to handle validation errors:

import { safeLoadEnv } from '@lunarcore/node';

const result = safeLoadEnv(schema);

if (result.success) {
  const env = result.data;
  // Use validated environment
} else {
  console.error('Environment validation failed:', result.error);
  process.exit(1);
}

Environment-Specific Loading

import { loadEnv } from '@lunarcore/node';

const env = loadEnv(
  schema,
  process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test' ? '.env.test' : '.env'
);

Configuration Management

Flexible configuration loading with validation and caching.

Basic Configuration Manager

import { ConfigManager, createJsonLoader } from '@lunarcore/node';

const manager = new ConfigManager(
  createJsonLoader('./config.json'),
  (config) => {
    // Validate with Zod
    return configSchema.parse(config);
  }
);

// Load and cache
const config = await manager.load();

// Get cached config (throws if not loaded)
const cached = manager.get();

// Force reload
await manager.reload();

Multiple Sources

import { 
  ConfigManager, 
  createJsonLoader, 
  createObjectLoader,
  CompositeConfigLoader 
} from '@lunarcore/node';

// Merge multiple sources (later sources override earlier ones)
const loader = new CompositeConfigLoader([
  createJsonLoader('./config.defaults.json'),
  createJsonLoader('./config.json'),
  createObjectLoader(process.env) // Environment variables override
]);

const manager = new ConfigManager(loader, validator);

Watch for Changes

manager.watch((config) => {
  console.log('Config reloaded:', config);
  updateApplication(config);
});

Custom Loaders

import { ConfigLoader } from '@lunarcore/node';

class DatabaseConfigLoader implements ConfigLoader {
  async load(): Promise<unknown> {
    const rows = await db.query('SELECT key, value FROM config');
    return Object.fromEntries(rows.map(r => [r.key, r.value]));
  }
}

Structured Logging

Production-ready logging with context and multiple transports.

Creating Loggers

import { createLogger, LogLevel } from '@lunarcore/node';

const logger = createLogger({
  level: LogLevel.INFO,
  defaultContext: {
    service: 'api',
    version: '1.0.0',
  },
});

Log Levels

logger.error('Database connection failed', { 
  host: 'localhost', 
  port: 5432 
});

logger.warn('Deprecated API endpoint used', { 
  endpoint: '/api/v1/users' 
});

logger.info('Request completed', { 
  method: 'GET', 
  path: '/api/users', 
  duration: 45 
});

logger.debug('Cache hit', { 
  key: 'user:123', 
  ttl: 3600 
});

Child Loggers

Child loggers inherit parent context:

const logger = createLogger({
  defaultContext: { service: 'api' }
});

// Each request gets its own logger
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  req.logger = logger.child({ 
    requestId: generateId(),
    method: req.method,
    path: req.path,
  });
  next();
});

// Logs include requestId, method, path automatically
req.logger.info('Processing request');

Structured Output

const logger = createLogger({
  level: LogLevel.INFO,
  format: 'json', // or 'pretty' for development
});

// Outputs JSON
logger.info('User login', { userId: 123 });
// {"level":"info","message":"User login","userId":123,"timestamp":"..."}

Custom Transports

import { Logger, LogEntry } from '@lunarcore/node';

class DatabaseTransport {
  async write(entry: LogEntry): Promise<void> {
    await db.logs.insert({
      level: entry.level,
      message: entry.message,
      context: entry.context,
      timestamp: entry.timestamp,
    });
  }
}

const logger = createLogger({
  transports: [
    new ConsoleTransport(),
    new DatabaseTransport(),
  ],
});

Sensitive Data Redaction

Automatic redaction of sensitive fields:

logger.info('Login attempt', {
  email: '[email protected]',
  password: 'secret123', // Automatically redacted
  apiKey: 'sk-abc123',   // Shows only prefix
});

// Output: password: "[REDACTED]", apiKey: "sk-ab...[REDACTED]"

Async Utilities

Safe async operations with retry, timeout, and concurrency control.

Retry with Backoff

import { retry } from '@lunarcore/node';

const data = await retry(
  async () => {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
    if (!response.ok) throw new Error('Request failed');
    return response.json();
  },
  {
    maxAttempts: 3,
    initialDelay: 1000,      // 1 second
    maxDelay: 10000,         // 10 seconds
    backoffMultiplier: 2,    // Exponential backoff
    retryIf: (error) => {
      // Only retry on network errors, not validation errors
      return error.code === 'ECONNREFUSED' || error.code === 'ETIMEDOUT';
    },
  }
);

Timeout

import { withTimeout } from '@lunarcore/node';

try {
  const result = await withTimeout(
    longRunningOperation(),
    5000, // 5 seconds
    'Operation timed out after 5 seconds'
  );
} catch (error) {
  if (error.name === 'TimeoutError') {
    // Handle timeout
  }
}

Safe Result Type

import { asyncResult } from '@lunarcore/node';

const result = await asyncResult(riskyOperation());

if (result.ok) {
  console.log('Success:', result.value);
} else {
  console.error('Failed:', result.error);
}

// No try-catch needed

Concurrency Control

import { promiseLimit } from '@lunarcore/node';

const urls = ['url1', 'url2', /* ...100 more */ ];

// Process 5 at a time
const results = await promiseLimit(
  urls,
  async (url) => {
    const response = await fetch(url);
    return response.json();
  },
  5 // Max concurrent operations
);

Batch Processing

import { batchProcess } from '@lunarcore/node';

const items = [/* thousands of items */];

await batchProcess(
  items,
  async (batch) => {
    // Process batch of 100 items
    await database.insertMany(batch);
  },
  { batchSize: 100 }
);

Debounce and Throttle

import { debounce, throttle } from '@lunarcore/node';

// Debounce: wait until calls stop
const saveDebounced = debounce(async (data) => {
  await saveToDatabase(data);
}, 1000);

// Throttle: execute at most once per interval
const logThrottled = throttle(async (event) => {
  await logEvent(event);
}, 5000);

Integration Examples

Express.js Integration

import express from 'express';
import { createLogger, loadEnv, ValidationError } from '@lunarcore/node';
import { z } from 'zod';

const env = loadEnv(z.object({
  PORT: z.string().transform(Number).default('3000'),
  LOG_LEVEL: z.enum(['debug', 'info', 'warn', 'error']).default('info'),
}));

const logger = createLogger({
  level: env.LOG_LEVEL,
  defaultContext: { service: 'api' },
});

const app = express();

// Request logging middleware
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  const start = Date.now();
  const requestLogger = logger.child({
    requestId: crypto.randomUUID(),
    method: req.method,
    path: req.path,
  });
  
  res.on('finish', () => {
    requestLogger.info('Request completed', {
      statusCode: res.statusCode,
      duration: Date.now() - start,
    });
  });
  
  req.logger = requestLogger;
  next();
});

// Error handling middleware
app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
  if (err instanceof ValidationError) {
    res.status(err.statusCode).json({
      error: err.message,
      code: err.code,
      context: err.context,
    });
  } else {
    req.logger.error('Unhandled error', { error: err });
    res.status(500).json({ error: 'Internal server error' });
  }
});

app.listen(env.PORT, () => {
  logger.info('Server started', { port: env.PORT });
});

Fastify Integration

import Fastify from 'fastify';
import { createLogger, retry } from '@lunarcore/node';

const logger = createLogger({ level: 'info' });
const fastify = Fastify({ logger });

fastify.addHook('onRequest', async (request) => {
  request.requestId = crypto.randomUUID();
});

fastify.get('/users/:id', async (request, reply) => {
  const user = await retry(
    () => fetchUser(request.params.id),
    { maxAttempts: 3 }
  );
  
  return user;
});

await fastify.listen({ port: 3000 });

Serverless Function

import { Handler } from 'aws-lambda';
import { createLogger, ValidationError } from '@lunarcore/node';

const logger = createLogger({ defaultContext: { function: 'processUser' } });

export const handler: Handler = async (event) => {
  const requestLogger = logger.child({ requestId: event.requestContext.requestId });
  
  try {
    requestLogger.info('Processing request', { body: event.body });
    
    const result = await processData(JSON.parse(event.body));
    
    return {
      statusCode: 200,
      body: JSON.stringify(result),
    };
  } catch (error) {
    requestLogger.error('Request failed', { error });
    
    if (error instanceof ValidationError) {
      return {
        statusCode: error.statusCode,
        body: JSON.stringify({ error: error.message }),
      };
    }
    
    return {
      statusCode: 500,
      body: JSON.stringify({ error: 'Internal server error' }),
    };
  }
};

Best Practices

Environment Variables

• Use schemas to validate all environment variables at startup
• Provide defaults for non-sensitive values
• Fail fast if required variables are missing
• Never commit .env files to version control

Error Handling

• Use custom error classes for domain-specific errors
• Include context in errors for debugging
• Distinguish between operational and programming errors
• Log errors with appropriate severity levels

Logging

• Use structured logging with consistent field names
• Include correlation IDs for request tracing
• Use appropriate log levels (don't log sensitive data)
• Create child loggers with request-specific context

Async Operations

• Use retry logic for transient failures
• Set timeouts for external operations
• Limit concurrency for batch operations
• Handle errors appropriately (don't silence them)

Configuration

• Separate configuration from code
• Use environment-specific config files
• Validate configuration on load
• Document all configuration options

TypeScript Configuration

Recommended tsconfig.json for use with LunarCore Node:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "strict": true,
    "target": "ES2022",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "skipLibCheck": true,
    "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
    "declaration": true,
    "outDir": "./dist",
    "rootDir": "./src"
  },
  "include": ["src/**/*"],
  "exclude": ["node_modules", "dist"]
}

Performance Considerations

Bundle Size

LunarCore Node is designed for minimal bundle size:

• Tree-shaking friendly exports
• No unnecessary dependencies
• Modular architecture

Runtime Performance

• Lazy initialization where possible
• Cached computations
• Efficient error handling
• Minimal overhead in logging

Memory Usage

• No memory leaks in long-running processes
• Proper cleanup of resources
• Efficient data structures

Security Best Practices

Input Validation

Always validate external input:

import { z } from 'zod';

const userSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  age: z.number().int().min(0).max(150),
});

const user = userSchema.parse(untrustedInput);

Secrets Management

Never log or expose secrets:

// Good - secrets are redacted
logger.info('Connecting to database', {
  host: dbHost,
  password: dbPassword, // Automatically redacted
});

// Bad - secrets in error messages
throw new Error(`Failed to connect with password: ${dbPassword}`);

Error Information Disclosure

Don't expose internal details to clients:

try {
  await operation();
} catch (error) {
  // Good - generic message to client
  res.status(500).json({ error: 'Operation failed' });
  
  // Good - detailed logging internally
  logger.error('Operation failed', { error, details: error.stack });
}

Migration from Other Libraries

From Winston

// Winston
const winston = require('winston');
const logger = winston.createLogger({
  level: 'info',
  transports: [new winston.transports.Console()],
});

// LunarCore Node
import { createLogger, LogLevel } from '@lunarcore/node';
const logger = createLogger({ level: LogLevel.INFO });

From dotenv

// dotenv
require('dotenv').config();
const port = parseInt(process.env.PORT);

// LunarCore Node
import { loadEnv, envNumber } from '@lunarcore/node';
const env = loadEnv(z.object({
  PORT: envNumber,
}));
const port = env.PORT; // Already parsed as number

API Reference

Complete TypeScript definitions are included with the package. Use your IDE's autocomplete and type checking for full API documentation.

Core Exports

// Error handling
export {
  AppError,
  ValidationError,
  AuthenticationError,
  AuthorizationError,
  NotFoundError,
  TimeoutError,
  ConfigurationError,
  isAppError,
  isOperationalError,
};

// Environment
export {
  loadEnv,
  safeLoadEnv,
  envNumber,
  envBoolean,
  envList,
};

// Config
export {
  ConfigManager,
  createJsonLoader,
  createObjectLoader,
  CompositeConfigLoader,
};

// Logger
export {
  createLogger,
  Logger,
  LogLevel,
  ConsoleTransport,
  JsonTransport,
};

// Async
export {
  retry,
  withTimeout,
  asyncResult,
  promiseLimit,
  batchProcess,
  debounce,
  throttle,
  sleep,
};

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Type Errors After Installation

Run npm install @types/node to ensure Node.js type definitions are available.

Environment Variables Not Loading

Check that your .env file is in the correct location and properly formatted.

Zod Validation Errors

Read the error messages carefully - Zod provides detailed information about what validation failed.

Debug Mode

Enable debug logging to troubleshoot issues:

const logger = createLogger({ level: LogLevel.DEBUG });

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please follow the existing code style and include tests for new features.

License

LunarCore Node is released under the MIT License.

Related Projects

• LunarCore Spec - Specification for the LunarCore ecosystem
• LunarCore Fabric - Fabric mod development SDK