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Sajjad Tabreez
Sajjad Tabreez

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Introducing nenv — A portable, per-project Node.js runtime for Windows (no global install required)

#javascript #node #github #webdev

Most of us have dealt with Node.js version conflicts at some point:

  • One project needs Node 18.
  • Another needs Node 20.
  • A global upgrade breaks something.
  • Corporate or restricted laptops don’t allow installers.
  • CI/CD behaves differently from local environments.
  • Teammates run “slightly different” versions and bugs magically appear.

On Linux/macOS, tools like nvm, asdf, volta, and fnm help…
But on Windows, especially without admin rights, things get messy.

So I started experimenting with a simple idea:

What if every project had its own Node.js runtime, completely local, portable, and isolated?

Just like Python has .venv.

That experiment grew into a small open-source tool called nenv.

🚀 nenv — Portable Node.js per project (Windows)

nenv is a lightweight script that downloads Node.js directly into your project folder and makes all Node/npm commands use that local runtime — even if no global Node is installed on the system.

It's basically:
node.exe + npm + npx

... stored inside the project

So project A can use Node 18
and project B can use Node 20
with zero conflict.

📂 Example Project Structure

After initializing:

project/
│ nenv.cmd
│ .nenv-version
└── .nenv/
    ├── cache/
    │   └── node-v18.20.0-win-x64.zip
    └── node-v18.20.0-win-x64/
        ├── node.exe
        ├── npm.cmd
        ├── npx.cmd
        └── all Node core files
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Everything stays inside your project.
Nothing touches your system installation.

📦 Installation

Run this inside your project root:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/tabreezsajjad/nenv@v0.5.0/nenv.txt" -OutFile "nenv.cmd"
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Initialize:

.\nenv.cmd init
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Enter the Node version you want (e.g., 20.11.1).

nenv downloads the ZIP from the official Node.js site and sets it up inside .nenv/.

🧪 Usage
Check Node version:

.\nenv.cmd node --version
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Install dependencies:

.\nenv.cmd npm install
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Run scripts:

.\nenv.cmd dev
.\nenv.cmd build
.\nenv.cmd start
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These behave exactly like:

npm run dev
npm run build
npm run start

but always using the project-local Node runtime.

✔ Supported Versions

nenv supports any official Node.js Windows x64 ZIP:

  • 14.x (legacy)
  • 16.x (legacy)
  • 18.x (LTS)
  • 20.x (LTS)
  • 22.x (Current)
  • 24.x (Latest)

💡 Why this approach?

  • No admin rights needed
  • No global Node installation required
  • Fully self-contained environments
  • Perfect for Windows developers
  • Great for corporate/restricted laptops
  • Reproducible environments across teams
  • CI/CD matches local dev

One project’s Node version never affects another

🔗 GitHub Repo

https://github.com/tabreezsajjad/nenv

The project is still early, but it works reliably and I’d love feedback, feature requests, or edge cases to test.

🙏 Thanks for reading!

If you try it out, I’d love to hear how it works for your workflow — especially if you're on Windows or dealing with Node version chaos across multiple projects.

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