repl-with

🚀 A zero-setup interactive Node.js REPL with your favorite NPM packages.

Tired of spinning up a new project just to try out a library?

repl-with lets you drop straight into a Node.js REPL with any NPM package preloaded — perfect for exploring libraries, quick experiments, testing code snippets, and more.

✨ Features

• ⚡ Zero setup: No install required
• 📦 Multiple packages: Load multiple packages at once
• 🔢 Multiple versions: Compare different versions of the same package side-by-side

🚀 Quick Start

# Try it with lodash
npx repl-with lodash

# Use aliases for convenience
npx repl-with _=lodash

# Import multiple libraries
npx repl-with _=lodash moment axios

📋 Requirements

• Node.js 16.9.0 or above

📖 Usage Examples

Basic Library Usage

npx repl-with lodash

> lodash.sum([1, 2, 3])
6
> lodash.map([1, 2, 3], x => x * 2)
[2, 4, 6]

Load Multiple Libraries

npx repl-with lodash moment

> lodash.sum([1, 2, 3])
6
> moment().format('YYYY-MM-DD')
'2025-08-16'

Using Aliases

Use aliases to make your life easier, or to import package names that are not valid JavaScript variable names.

npx repl-with _=lodash prettyBytes=pretty-bytes

> _.sum([1, 2, 3])
6
> prettyBytes(1234)
'1.23 kB'

Version Comparison

Use aliases to install multiple versions of the same library side-by-side:

npx repl-with [email protected] [email protected]

> lodash3.VERSION
'3.0.0'
> lodash4.VERSION
'4.0.0'

💡 Tips

ES Modules: Default Export

For compatibility reasons, you need to use .default to access default exports in ES modules:

npx repl-with axios chalk

> axios.default.get('https://api.github.com/users/octocat')
Promise { <pending> }
> console.log(chalk.default.blue('Hello World!'))
'Hello World!' // (in blue color)

🪄 For your convenience, if the default export is the only export, then it will be automatically assigned to the variable name:

npx repl-with prettyBytes=pretty-bytes

> prettyBytes(1234)
'1.23 kB'

Top-level Await

repl-with requires Node.js 16.9.0 or above, which supports top-level await.

npx repl-with axios

> axios.default.get('https://api.github.com/users/octocat')
Promise {
    <pending>
...

> await axios.default.get('https://api.github.com/users/octocat')
{
  status: 200,
...

🛠️ Built-in Commands

All standard Node.js REPL commands are supported (.clear, .help, etc.) plus these enhanced commands:

.debug

Show debugging information about loaded packages.

.import

Dynamically import additional NPM packages during the session:

.import d=date-fns _=lodash

.packages

List all available packages in the current session.