Node.js JavaScript runtime: install, use & LTS guide

Understanding the Node.js Runtime

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime: it executes JavaScript code outside a web browser, on a server, a laptop, or inside CI. It runs on an event-driven, non-blocking model, so a single process can handle many concurrent connections instead of blocking on each one. The project ships three release lines, Current, LTS, and Nightly, and documents its own build, verification, and governance process in the repo.

Key Characteristics of Node.js

• ✓Ships as three release types: Current, which gets a new major version roughly every 6 months (April and October); LTS, which favors stability; and Nightly, rebuilt from the Current branch roughly every 24 hours.
• ✓LTS lines only come from even-numbered major versions, and each one carries an alphabetically-ordered code name starting with v4's Argon.
• ✓An LTS release line gets 12 months as Active LTS, then 18 more months as Maintenance before it's retired.
• ✓Current and LTS builds both follow semantic versioning, and someone on the Release Team puts a signature on every one of them.
• ✓Binaries ship with a SHASUMS256.txt.asc checksum-and-signature file, so you can verify a download instead of trusting it blindly.
• ✓Runs under an open governance model with a Technical Steering Committee, backed by the OpenJS Foundation rather than a single vendor.
• ✓Has a documented Code of Conduct plus separate paths for Working Groups, strategic initiatives, and technical-values discussions.

Common Questions About Node.js

Alternatives

The problem it solves

Before a runtime like this existed, JavaScript only ran inside a browser's own engine, so a team that already wrote JS on the frontend had to reach for a second language, Ruby, Python, Java, PHP, just to build a server or a CLI tool. There was also no shared, documented answer to which build you could trust in production versus which one was still cooking. Node.js's own README answers that second half directly: it lays out Current, LTS, and Nightly as three deliberately different promises, plus a checksum-and-signature process so a downloaded binary can be verified rather than trusted on faith.

Best use cases

• •Building a server, CLI tool, or backend service in JavaScript without switching languages from your frontend code.
• •Picking a release line on purpose: Current for the newest changes, LTS when you need a longer, more predictable support window.
• •Verifying a downloaded binary before it goes into a CI pipeline or production image, using the published checksums and PGP signature.
• •Building Node.js from source when a prebuilt binary isn't available for your platform, following BUILDING.md.
• •Tracking a specific LTS line by its code name, like Hydrogen for Node.js 18, instead of chasing a raw version number.

How to install / try

Grab a binary, installer, or source tarball from nodejs.org/en/download. Current and LTS builds are archived under nodejs.org/download/release, where the 'latest' directory always points at the newest Current release and 'latest-<codename>' points at the newest build in a given LTS line, for example latest-hydrogen for Node.js 18. If you want to track unreleased changes, Nightly builds sit at nodejs.org/download/nightly, named with the version, the UTC build date, and a short commit SHA (v22.0.0-nightly20240424ddd0a9e494 is the README's own example). Verification is optional but easy. To build from source instead, BUILDING.md covers the steps and the list of supported platforms.

How to use

The README doesn't walk through day-to-day usage inline; it points to the Node.js website for that. What it does document is where the reference material lives: API docs for the newest Current build sit at nodejs.org/api, and version-specific docs are in each release's own docs subdirectory and mirrored at nodejs.org/download/docs.

Who should try it — and who should skip

Try Node.js if you want one language across your stack, server, CLI tooling, and scripts alike, and you don't mind assembling your own framework, database driver, and test runner instead of getting them prescribed. It also fits you if a documented, signed release process matters: pick LTS for production, Current if you want newer runtime features sooner, and verify what you download against the published checksums and PGP signatures. Skip it, or look elsewhere first, if you want a bundler, test runner, and package manager built into the runtime itself, since this README frames Node.js around the runtime and its release process, not a packaged toolchain.

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