Workers

Worker lets you start and communicate with a new JavaScript instance running on a separate thread while sharing I/O resources with the main thread.

Bun implements a minimal version of the Web Workers API with extensions that make it work better for server-side use cases. Like the rest of Bun, Worker in Bun support CommonJS, ES Modules, TypeScript, JSX, TSX and more out of the box. No extra build steps are necessary.

Creating a Worker

Like in browsers, Worker is a global. Use it to create a new worker thread.

From the main thread

const workerURL = new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href;
const worker = new Worker(workerURL);

worker.postMessage("hello");
worker.onmessage = event => {
  console.log(event.data);
};

Worker thread

// prevents TS errors
declare var self: Worker;

self.onmessage = (event: MessageEvent) => {
  console.log(event.data);
  postMessage("world");
};

To prevent TypeScript errors when using self, add this line to the top of your worker file.

declare var self: Worker;

You can use import and export syntax in your worker code. Unlike in browsers, there's no need to specify {type: "module"} to use ES Modules.

To simplify error handling, the initial script to load is resolved at the time new Worker(url) is called.

const worker = new Worker("/not-found.js");
// throws an error immediately

The specifier passed to Worker is resolved relative to the project root (like typing bun ./path/to/file.js).

"open"

The "open" event is emitted when a worker is created and ready to receive messages. This can be used to send an initial message to a worker once it's ready. (This event does not exist in browsers.)

const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);

worker.addEventListener("open", () => {
  console.log("worker is ready");
});

Messages are automatically enqueued until the worker is ready, so there is no need to wait for the "open" event to send messages.

Messages with postMessage

To send messages, use worker.postMessage and self.postMessage. This leverages the HTML Structured Clone Algorithm.

// On the worker thread, `postMessage` is automatically "routed" to the parent thread.
postMessage({ hello: "world" });

// On the main thread
worker.postMessage({ hello: "world" });

To receive messages, use the message event handler on the worker and main thread.

// Worker thread:
self.addEventListener("message", event => {
  console.log(event.data);
});
// or use the setter:
// self.onmessage = fn

// if on the main thread
worker.addEventListener("message", event => {
  console.log(event.data);
});
// or use the setter:
// worker.onmessage = fn

Terminating a worker

A Worker instance terminates automatically once it's event loop has no work left to do. Attaching a "message" listener on the global or any MessagePorts will keep the event loop alive. To forcefully terminate a Worker, call worker.terminate().

const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);

// ...some time later
worker.terminate();

This will cause the worker's to exit as soon as possible.

process.exit()

A worker can terminate itself with process.exit(). This does not terminate the main process. Like in Node.js, process.on('beforeExit', callback) and process.on('exit', callback) are emitted on the worker thread (and not on the main thread), and the exit code is passed to the "close" event.

"close"

The "close" event is emitted when a worker has been terminated. It can take some time for the worker to actually terminate, so this event is emitted when the worker has been marked as terminated. The CloseEvent will contain the exit code passed to process.exit(), or 0 if closed for other reasons.

const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);

worker.addEventListener("close", event => {
  console.log("worker is being closed");
});

This event does not exist in browsers.

Managing lifetime

By default, an active Worker will keep the main (spawning) process alive, so async tasks like setTimeout and promises will keep the process alive. Attaching message listeners will also keep the Worker alive.

worker.unref()

To stop a running worker from keeping the process alive, call worker.unref(). This decouples the lifetime of the worker to the lifetime of the main process, and is equivalent to what Node.js' worker_threads does.

const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
worker.unref();

Note: worker.unref() is not available in browsers.

worker.ref()

To keep the process alive until the Worker terminates, call worker.ref(). A ref'd worker is the default behavior, and still needs something going on in the event loop (such as a "message" listener) for the worker to continue running.

const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href);
worker.unref();
// later...
worker.ref();

Alternatively, you can also pass an options object to Worker:

const worker = new Worker(new URL("worker.ts", import.meta.url).href, {
  ref: false,
});

Note: worker.ref() is not available in browsers.

Memory usage with smol

JavaScript instances can use a lot of memory. Bun's Worker supports a smol mode that reduces memory usage, at a cost of performance. To enable smol mode, pass smol: true to the options object in the Worker constructor.

const worker = new Worker("./i-am-smol.ts", {
  smol: true,
});