Loaders

The Bun bundler has a set of built-in loaders.

As a rule of thumb: the bundler and the runtime both support the same set of file types by default.

.js .cjs .mjs .mts .cts .ts .tsx .jsx .css .json .jsonc .json5 .toml .yaml .yml .xml .txt .text .md .markdown .wasm .node .html .sh

Bun uses the file extension to choose which built-in loader parses the file. Every loader has a name, such as js, tsx, or json. Plugins that extend Bun with custom loaders refer to these names.

To specify a loader explicitly, use the 'type' import attribute.

import my_toml from "./my_file" with { type: "toml" };
// or with dynamic imports
const { default: my_toml } = await import("./my_file", { with: { type: "toml" } });

Built-in loaders#

js#

JavaScript loader. Default for .cjs and .mjs.

Parses the code and applies a set of default transforms like dead-code elimination and tree shaking. Bun does not down-convert syntax.

jsx#

JavaScript + JSX loader. Default for .js and .jsx.

Same as the js loader, but JSX syntax is supported. By default, Bun down-converts JSX to plain JavaScript. The exact output depends on the jsx* compiler options in your tsconfig.json. See the TypeScript documentation on JSX.

ts#

TypeScript loader. Default for .ts, .mts, and .cts.

Strips out all TypeScript syntax, then behaves identically to the js loader. Bun does not perform typechecking.

tsx#

TypeScript + JSX loader. Default for .tsx.

Transpiles both TypeScript and JSX to vanilla JavaScript.

json#

JSON loader. Default for .json.

JSON files can be directly imported.

import pkg from "./package.json";
pkg.name; // => "my-package"

During bundling, Bun inlines the parsed JSON into the bundle as a JavaScript object.

const pkg = {
  name: "my-package",
  // ... other fields
};

pkg.name;

If you pass a .json file as an entrypoint to the bundler, Bun converts it to a .js module that export defaults the parsed object.

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "age": 35,
  "email": "johndoe@example.com"
}

export default {
  name: "John Doe",
  age: 35,
  email: "johndoe@example.com",
};

jsonc#

JSON with Comments loader. Default for .jsonc.

JSONC (JSON with Comments) files can be directly imported. Bun parses them, stripping out comments and trailing commas.

import config from "./config.jsonc";
console.log(config);

During bundling, Bun inlines the parsed JSONC into the bundle as a JavaScript object, identical to the json loader.

var config = {
  option: "value",
};

toml#

TOML loader. Default for .toml.

TOML files can be directly imported. Bun parses them with its native TOML parser.

import config from "./bunfig.toml";
config.logLevel; // => "debug"

// with an import attribute:
// import myCustomTOML from './my.config' with {type: "toml"};

During bundling, Bun inlines the parsed TOML into the bundle as a JavaScript object.

var config = {
  logLevel: "debug",
  // ...other fields
};
config.logLevel;

If you pass a .toml file as an entrypoint, Bun converts it to a .js module that export defaults the parsed object.

name = "John Doe"
age = 35
email = "johndoe@example.com"

export default {
  name: "John Doe",
  age: 35,
  email: "johndoe@example.com",
};

yaml#

YAML loader. Default for .yaml and .yml.

YAML files can be directly imported. Bun parses them with its native YAML parser.

import config from "./config.yaml";
console.log(config);

// with an import attribute:
import data from "./data.txt" with { type: "yaml" };

During bundling, Bun inlines the parsed YAML into the bundle as a JavaScript object.

var config = {
  name: "my-app",
  version: "1.0.0",
  // ...other fields
};

If you pass a .yaml or .yml file as an entrypoint, Bun converts it to a .js module that export defaults the parsed object.

name: John Doe
age: 35
email: johndoe@example.com

export default {
  name: "John Doe",
  age: 35,
  email: "johndoe@example.com",
};

xml#

XML loader. Default for .xml.

XML files can be directly imported. Bun parses them with its native XML 1.0 parser into the compact object shape of Bun.XML.parse:

• One key for the root element
• "@name" keys for attributes
• Arrays for repeated child elements
• "#text" for text next to attributes or children
• Every value is a string

import doc from "./config.xml";
console.log(doc.config["@version"]);

// via import attribute:
import feed from "./export.rss" with { type: "xml" };

During bundling, Bun inlines the parsed XML into the bundle as a JavaScript object.

var doc = {
  config: {
    "@version": "2",
    // ...other fields
  },
};

If you pass a .xml file as an entrypoint, Bun converts it to a .js module that export defaults the parsed object.

<user id="1">
  <name>John Doe</name>
  <email>johndoe@example.com</email>
  <role>admin</role>
  <role>editor</role>
</user>

export default {
  user: {
    "@id": "1",
    name: "John Doe",
    email: "johndoe@example.com",
    role: ["admin", "editor"],
  },
};

text#

Text loader. Default for .txt and .text.

Text files can be directly imported. Bun reads the file and returns it as a string.

import contents from "./file.txt";
console.log(contents); // => "Hello, world!"

// To import an html file as text
// The "type" attribute overrides the default loader.
import html from "./index.html" with { type: "text" };

When the file is referenced during a build, Bun inlines the contents into the bundle as a string.

var contents = `Hello, world!`;
console.log(contents);

If you pass a .txt file as an entrypoint, Bun converts it to a .js module that export defaults the file contents.

Hello, world!

export default "Hello, world!";

napi#

Native addon loader. Default for .node.

In the runtime, native addons can be directly imported.

import addon from "./addon.node";
console.log(addon);

sqlite#

SQLite loader. Requires with { "type": "sqlite" } import attribute.

In the runtime and bundler, SQLite databases can be directly imported. Bun loads the database with bun:sqlite.

import db from "./my.db" with { type: "sqlite" };

By default, Bun does not bundle the database file on disk into the final output. The database file stays external to the bundle, so you can use a database loaded elsewhere.

You can change this behavior with the "embed" attribute:

// embed the database into the bundle
import db from "./my.db" with { type: "sqlite", embed: "true" };

html#

HTML loader. Default for .html.

The html loader processes HTML files and bundles any referenced assets. It:

• Bundles and hashes referenced JavaScript files (<script src="...">)
• Bundles and hashes referenced CSS files (<link rel="stylesheet" href="...">)
• Hashes referenced images (<img src="...">)
• Preserves external URLs (by default, anything starting with http:// or https://)

For example, given this HTML file:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <body>
    <img src="./image.jpg" alt="Local image" />
    <img src="https://example.com/image.jpg" alt="External image" />
    <script type="module" src="./script.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

Bun outputs a new HTML file with the bundled assets:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <body>
    <img src="./image-HASHED.jpg" alt="Local image" />
    <img src="https://example.com/image.jpg" alt="External image" />
    <script type="module" src="./output-ALSO-HASHED.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>

The loader uses lol-html to extract script and link tags as entrypoints, and other assets as external.

css#

CSS loader. Default for .css.

CSS files can be directly imported. The bundler parses and bundles them, handling @import statements and url() references.

import "./styles.css";

During bundling, Bun combines all imported CSS files into a single .css file in the output directory.

.my-class {
  background: url("./image.png");
}

sh#

Bun Shell loader. Default for .sh files.

This loader parses Bun Shell scripts. It's only supported when starting Bun itself, so it's not available in the bundler or in the runtime.

bun run ./script.sh

file#

File loader. Default for all unrecognized file types.

The file loader resolves the import as a path/URL to the imported file. It's commonly used for referencing media or font assets.

// logo.ts
import logo from "./logo.svg";
console.log(logo);

In the runtime, Bun checks that logo.svg exists and resolves the import to its absolute path on disk.

bun run logo.ts
# Output: /path/to/project/logo.svg

In the bundler, Bun copies the file into outdir as-is, and the import resolves to a relative path pointing to the copied file.

// Output
var logo = "./logo.svg";
console.log(logo);

If publicPath is set, the import uses its value as a prefix to construct an absolute path/URL.