@agntcy/slim-bindings (Node) can't be loaded from plain Node.js — broken by a transitive dependency's packaging

[ruvnet]

What happened

Following this repo's own @agntcy/slim-bindings README (which documents plain Node.js usage, npm install @agntcy/slim-bindings then import slimBindings from '@agntcy/slim-bindings'), loading the package throws immediately:

Error [ERR_UNSUPPORTED_NODE_MODULES_TYPE_STRIPPING]: Stripping types is currently unsupported for files under node_modules, for ".../node_modules/uniffi-bindgen-react-native/typescript/src/index.ts"

Root cause (found and reported upstream)

@agntcy/slim-bindings's platform packages (e.g. @agntcy/slim-bindings-linux-x64-gnu) declare uniffi-bindgen-react-native as a runtime dependencies entry — the generated bindings import { ... } from 'uniffi-bindgen-react-native' for FFI converter helpers. That package's own package.json points "main" directly at raw, uncompiled TypeScript (./typescript/src/index.ts) with no build output — which only works inside a bundler (Metro, for its primary React Native use case), not plain Node require/import. Filed against that repo directly: jhugman/uniffi-bindgen-react-native#422

Impact here

This means @agntcy/slim-bindings currently can't be used from plain Node.js at all, despite the README documenting exactly that. Wanted to flag it here too in case this repo has any leverage with that dependency, or wants to vendor/patch the runtime helper import in the meantime — happy to help test either.

Found this while integrating @agntcy/slim-bindings into a project (real client code written against the documented API, blocked only by this load-time failure). The rest of the documented API surface (initializeWithDefaults, getGlobalService/createService, App.newWithSecret, connectAsync, runServer, etc.) looks solid and well-typed from the shipped .d.ts — this is purely a packaging/dependency issue, not a design one.

[janosSarusiKis]

Hi @ruvnet, thanks for creating the issue!

Just to confirm: you were testing against @agntcy/slim-bindings@1.4.1 (the current latest on npm), correct?

We've since moved away from the uniffi-bindgen-react-native runtime dependency in favor of @ubjs/core/@ubjs/node, which ship compiled output instead of raw TypeScript — this looks like it should resolve the issue. That change has gone out in our alpha channel (2.0.0-alpha.4+) but hasn't been promoted to latest yet.

Could you try npm install @agntcy/slim-bindings@alpha and let us know if you still hit the same error? That'll help us confirm the fix before we promote it.

[ruvnet]

Confirmed — thanks for the quick turnaround!

Yes, my original report was against @agntcy/slim-bindings@1.4.1 (npm latest at the time). Just tested @agntcy/slim-bindings@alpha (resolved to 2.0.0-alpha.10) under plain Node.js (no bundler, no Metro) with a real end-to-end smoke test — server bring-up, client connect, graceful shutdown, no ERR_UNSUPPORTED_NODE_MODULES_TYPE_STRIPPING:

version 2.0.0-alpha.10
created server app
server running
client connected, connId= 1n
... graceful shutdown ...

Fully confirms the @ubjs/core/@ubjs/node migration resolves this. Will keep this open until it's promoted to latest (since that's still what the README/npm default points people to today), but this is a clean confirmation on our end — happy to re-test again once you cut the promotion if useful.

[janosSarusiKis]

Hi @ruvnet ! We released https://www.npmjs.com/package/@agntcy/slim-bindings/v/2.0.0 and npm install should now pick up this one as the latest. Can I ask you to validate that the issue is solved and close it if all is good?
Thanks in advance!

[ruvnet]

Thanks I'll check it out

[msardara]

Just a heads up, @ruvnet, this is a major upgrade so it also requires to run the a slim node with version 2.0.0 😊