Browserify JavaScript Bundler Cheat Sheet

[!NOTE] Browserify is an archival JavaScript module bundler that brought Node.js require() and CommonJS syntax to the browser. Modern web applications typically use Vite, esbuild, Rollup, or webpack.

CLI Usage

# Basic bundle compilation
browserify input.js -o output.js

# Apply transforms
browserify input.js -o bundle.js -t babelify

# Generate source maps for debugging
browserify input.js -o bundle.js --debug

# Generate standalone UMD bundle
browserify input.js -s MyLibrary -o bundle.js

# Exclude, ignore, or mark modules as external
browserify input.js -u react     # --exclude: omit file
browserify input.js -x react     # --external: reference from another bundle
browserify input.js -i react     # --ignore: stub file with empty module

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Programmatic API

const browserify = require('browserify');
const fs = require('fs');

const b = browserify('src/main.js', { debug: true });

b.transform('babelify', { presets: ['@babel/preset-env'] });

b.bundle().pipe(fs.createWriteStream('dist/bundle.js'));

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Popular Ecosystem Transforms

• babelify: Transpiles modern ES6+ and JSX to browser-compatible ES5.
• envify: Replaces process.env.NODE_ENV with string literals for dead-code elimination.
• brfs: Inlines fs.readFileSync calls with static file contents at build time.
• watchify: Incremental build watcher for high-speed rebuilds during development.