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babel

The compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

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FAQ

Docs?

Check out our website: babeljs.io

Looking for support?

For questions and support please visit our discussion forum, sign up for our Slack community, or StackOverflow.

Want to report a bug or request a feature?

Bugs and feature requests can be posted at https://github.com/babel/babel/issues.

We've moved our issues from phabricator back to github issues!

Former phabricator issue urls now automatically redirect to their corresponding Github issue:

https://phabricator.babeljs.io/T2168 mostly corresponds to babel#2168.

Want to report an issue with babeljs.io (the website)?

For documentation and website issues please visit the babel/babel.github.iorepo.

Want to contribute to Babel?

Check out our CONTRIBUTING.md. If you have already joined slack, join our #development channel!

You can also start by checking out the issues with the help-wanted label.

Our discussions/notes/roadmap: babel/notes

Packages

The Babel repo is managed as a monorepo; it's composed of many npm packages.

Core Packages

Package Version Dependencies
babel-core npm Dependency Status
babylon npm Dependency Status
babel-traverse npm Dependency Status
babel-generator npm Dependency Status

babel-core is the Babel compiler itself; it exposes the babel.transform method, where transformedCode = transform(src).code.

The compiler can be broken down into 3 parts:

  • The parser: babylon (moved to a separate repo and versioned independently)
  • The transformer[s]: All the plugins/presets
  • The generator: babel-generator

The flow goes like this:

input string -> babylon parser -> AST -> transformer[s] -> AST -> babel-generator -> output string

Check out the babel-handbook for more information on this.

Other

Package Version Dependencies
babel-cli npm Dependency Status
babel-types npm Dependency Status
babel-polyfill npm Dependency Status
babel-runtime npm Dependency Status
babel-register npm Dependency Status
babel-template npm Dependency Status
babel-helpers npm Dependency Status
babel-code-frame npm Dependency Status
  • babel-cli is the CLI tool that runs babel-core and helps with outputting to a directory, a file, stdout and more (also includes babel-node). Check out the docs.
  • babel-types is used to validate, build, change AST nodes.
  • babel-polyfill is literally a wrapper around core-js and regenerator-runtime. Check out the docs.
  • babel-runtime is similar to the polyfill except that it doesn't modify the global scope and is to be used with babel-plugin-transform-runtime (usually in library/plugin code). Check out the docs
  • babel-register is a way to automatically compile files with babel on the fly by binding to node's require. Check out the docs
  • babel-template is a helper function to make AST nodes. Instead you can pass a string representing the code you want to create rather than tediously building them using babel-types.
  • babel-helpers is a set of premade babel-template functions that are used in some babel plugins.
  • babel-code-frame is a standalone package used to generate errors that prints the source code and points to error locations.

Presets

After Babel 6, the default transforms were removed; if you don't specify any plugins/presets it will just return the original source code.

The transformer[s] used in Babel are the independent pieces of code that transform specific things. For example: the es2015-arrow-functions transform specifically changes arrow functions into a regular function. Presets are just simply an array of plugins that make it easier to run a whole a set of transforms without specifying each one manually.

There are a few presets that we maintain officially.

Package Version Dependencies
babel-preset-es2015 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-es2016 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-es2017 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-latest npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-stage-0 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-stage-1 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-stage-2 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-stage-3 npm Dependency Status
babel-preset-react npm Dependency Status

We maintain:

  • a preset for each yearly release of ECMAScript (Javascript) starting from ES6/ES2015
  • a preset for react (JSX/Flow)
  • a preset for each stage (0-3) of the TC-39 Process for ECMAScript proposals.

You can find community maintained presets on npm

Plugins

Plugins are the heart of Babel and what make it work.

You can find community plugins on npm.

Transform Plugins

There are many kinds of plugins: ones that convert ES6/ES2015 to ES5, transform to ES3, minification, JSX, flow, experimental features, and more.

Package Version External Deps
babel-plugin-check-es2015-constants npm
babel-plugin-transform-async-functions npm
babel-plugin-transform-async-generator-functions npm
babel-plugin-transform-async-to-generator npm
babel-plugin-transform-async-to-module-method npm
babel-plugin-transform-class-properties npm
babel-plugin-transform-decorators npm
babel-plugin-transform-do-expressions npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-arrow-functions npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-block-scoped-functions npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-block-scoping npm Dependency Status
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-classes npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-computed-properties npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-destructuring npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-duplicate-keys npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-for-of npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-function-name npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-instanceof npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-literals npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-modules-amd npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-modules-commonjs npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-modules-systemjs npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-modules-umd npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-object-super npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-parameters npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-shorthand-properties npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-spread npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-sticky-regex npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-template-literals npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-typeof-symbol npm
babel-plugin-transform-es2015-unicode-regex npm Dependency Status
babel-plugin-transform-es3-member-expression-literals npm
babel-plugin-transform-es3-property-literals npm
babel-plugin-transform-es5-property-mutators npm
babel-plugin-transform-eval npm
babel-plugin-transform-exponentiation-operator npm
babel-plugin-transform-export-extensions npm
babel-plugin-transform-flow-comments npm
babel-plugin-transform-flow-strip-types npm
babel-plugin-transform-function-bind npm
babel-plugin-transform-jscript npm
babel-plugin-transform-object-assign npm
babel-plugin-transform-object-rest-spread npm
babel-plugin-transform-object-set-prototype-of-to-assign npm
babel-plugin-transform-proto-to-assign npm Dependency Status
babel-plugin-transform-react-constant-elements npm
babel-plugin-transform-react-display-name npm
babel-plugin-transform-react-inline-elements npm
babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx npm
babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-compat npm
babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-self npm
babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-source npm
babel-plugin-transform-regenerator npm Dependency Status
babel-plugin-transform-runtime npm
babel-plugin-transform-strict-mode npm

Syntax Plugins

These just enable the transform plugins to be able to parse certain features (the transform plugins already include the syntax plugins so you don't need both): babel-plugin-syntax-x.

Helpers

These are mostly for internal use in various plugins: babel-helper-x.

Misc Packages

  • babel the deprecated babel package on npm that was used in Babel 5.
  • babel-messages a package to keep error messages, etc (not always used)

License

MIT