Installation

Prerequisites

Node.js v20 or later required

Purus v0.10.x and later requires Node.js v20 or later. Older versions are not supported.

If you are using Purus v0.9.x or earlier, Node.js v18 or later is required.

Install Node.js from one of the following:

• Node.js v20 — specific v20 release
• Node.js LTS — latest LTS release
• nvm (recommended) — Node Version Manager (macOS / Linux)
• nvm-windows (recommended) — Node Version Manager (Windows)

Using nvm

# Install and use Node.js v20
nvm install 20
nvm use 20

# Or install and use the latest LTS
nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts

Install via npm

Latest version: ... — View on npm

npm install -g purus

Verify

purus version

Your first program

Create a file main.purus:

const message be ///Hello, World///
console.log[message]

Compile and run:

purus build main.purus
node main.js

Or run directly without generating files:

purus run main.purus

Create a project

Use purus new to set up a project with configuration, scripts, and dependencies:

purus new my-project
cd my-project
npm run build

File extensions

Extension	Output	Use case
.purus	.js	Standard JavaScript
.cpurus	.cjs	CommonJS module
.mpurus	.mjs	ES Module