node-datachannel

WebRTC For Node.js and Electron ( with WebSocket)

• Lightweight
  • No need to deal with WebRTC stack!
  • Small binary sizes (~8MB for Linux x64)
• Type infos for Typescript
• Integrated WebSocket Client & Server Implementation

This project is Node.js bindings for libdatachannel library.

Install

npm install node-datachannel

Supported Platforms

node-datachannel targets N-API version 8 and supports Node.js v18.20 and above (including Node.js 20, 22, and 24+). Prebuilt binaries are distributed automatically via platform-specific npm packages (optionalDependencies).

Architecture	Linux (glibc)	Linux (musl / Alpine)	macOS (Apple Silicon / Intel)	Windows	Android (Termux / Bionic)
x64	@node-datachannel/linux-x64-gnu	@node-datachannel/linux-x64-musl	@node-datachannel/darwin-x64	@node-datachannel/win32-x64-msvc	-
arm64	@node-datachannel/linux-arm64-gnu	@node-datachannel/linux-arm64-musl	@node-datachannel/darwin-arm64	@node-datachannel/win32-arm64-msvc	@node-datachannel/android-arm64

Electron

node-datachannel supports Electron.

Please check electron demo

WebRTC Polyfills

WebRTC polyfills to be used for libraries like simple-peer.

Please check here for more

web-platform-tests

Please check actual situation here

WebSocket Client & Server

Integrated WebSocket Client & Server is available, which can be used separately or for signaling.

For an example usage, check here

Example Usage

import nodeDataChannel from 'node-datachannel';

// Log Level
nodeDataChannel.initLogger('Debug');

// Integrated WebSocket available and can be used for signaling etc
// const ws = new nodeDataChannel.WebSocket();

let dc1 = null;
let dc2 = null;

let peer1 = new nodeDataChannel.PeerConnection('Peer1', {
  iceServers: ['stun:stun.l.google.com:19302'],
});

peer1.onLocalDescription((sdp, type) => {
  peer2.setRemoteDescription(sdp, type);
});
peer1.onLocalCandidate((candidate, mid) => {
  peer2.addRemoteCandidate(candidate, mid);
});

let peer2 = new nodeDataChannel.PeerConnection('Peer2', {
  iceServers: ['stun:stun.l.google.com:19302'],
});

peer2.onLocalDescription((sdp, type) => {
  peer1.setRemoteDescription(sdp, type);
});
peer2.onLocalCandidate((candidate, mid) => {
  peer1.addRemoteCandidate(candidate, mid);
});
peer2.onDataChannel((dc) => {
  dc2 = dc;
  dc2.onMessage((msg) => {
    console.log('Peer2 Received Msg:', msg);
  });
  dc2.sendMessage('Hello From Peer2');
});

dc1 = peer1.createDataChannel('test');

dc1.onOpen(() => {
  dc1.sendMessage('Hello from Peer1');
});

dc1.onMessage((msg) => {
  console.log('Peer1 Received Msg:', msg);
});

Examples

Please check examples folder

Test

npm run test                  # Unit tests
node test/connectivity.js     # Connectivity

Build

Please check here

API Docs

Please check docs page

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

Thanks

Thanks to Streamr for supporting this project by being a Sponsor!