esbuild
Extremely fast JavaScript and CSS bundler and minifier written in Go.
Build tools and bundlers npm MIT
Used in agent projects
342
2.7% of 12,697 public repos built with AI coding agents
Rank in build tools and bundlers
#4 of 81
by use in those projects
Downloads
3M
npm, last 7 days, esbuild
GitHub stars
40.1K
last push Aug 9, 2026
How esbuild is used
esbuild is a dependency in 342 of the 12,697 public GitHub projects set up for AI coding agents that we scanned (2.7%), #4 of 81 in build tools and bundlers. The most used alternative there is Vite. Projects that use it most often also use tsx (49.1%), Vitest (47.1%), TypeScript (88.0%). It is more common in projects set up for OpenAI Codex (8.7%) than for GitHub Copilot (3.7%).
Often used with esbuild
| tsx | 49.1% of esbuild projects · 4.9× more than average |
|---|---|
| Vitest | 47.1% of esbuild projects · 3.9× more than average |
| TypeScript | 88.0% of esbuild projects · 1.6× more than average |
| Zod | 45.3% of esbuild projects · 2.7× more than average |
| Express | 26.0% of esbuild projects · 4.0× more than average |
| Vite | 46.8% of esbuild projects · 2.1× more than average |
| jsdom | 22.2% of esbuild projects · 4.1× more than average |
| ws | 19.3% of esbuild projects · 8.5× more than average |
By coding agent
| Claude Code | 5.2% of projects set up for it |
|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | 3.7% of projects set up for it |
| Cursor | 4.5% of projects set up for it |
| OpenAI Codex | 8.7% of projects set up for it |
| Gemini CLI | 4.3% of projects set up for it |
| OpenCode | 5.6% of projects set up for it |
| Devin Desktop | 4.0% of projects set up for it |
| Kiro | 5.5% of projects set up for it |
Share of public repos configured for each agent that list esbuild as a dependency.
Install
| Package | npm install esbuild |
|---|---|
| Main stacks | TypeScript / JavaScript (272), Next.js (31), Python (22), Rust (9) |
| Example projects | c15t/c15t, sunflower-land/sunflower-land, vega-org/vega-app, regenrek/deepwiki-mcp, spencermarx/open-code-review |
Alternatives to esbuild
| Tool | Used in agent projects | Downloads / wk | GitHub stars | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vite npm Fast native-ESM powered web development build tool and dev server. |
2,897 (22.8%) | 194M | 83.3K | MIT |
| Babel (JavaScript) npm JavaScript compiler for transforming modern JavaScript to compatible code. |
484 (3.8%) | 187M | 44.1K | MIT |
| Turborepo npm High-performance build system for monorepos with task parallelization. |
399 (3.1%) | 29.5M | 31.2K | MIT |
| webpack npm Module bundler that packages JavaScript, assets and dependencies for browser deployment. |
255 (2.0%) | 54.9M | 66.1K | MIT |
| react-scripts npm Build configuration and scripts for Create React App zero-configuration setup. |
231 (1.8%) | 2.4M | 103K | MIT |
| React Compiler Babel Plugin npm Babel plugin for React Compiler that optimizes React component rendering. |
202 (1.6%) | 17.8M | 251K | MIT |
| webpack CLI npm Command-line interface for webpack bundler and related build tools. |
201 (1.6%) | 10.4M | 2,617 | MIT |
| vite-tsconfig-paths npm Vite plugin that resolves TypeScript path aliases from tsconfig.json automatically. |
184 (1.4%) | 26.7M | 1,631 | MIT |