docs.sheetjs.com/docz/docs/03-demos/20-cli/05-pkg.md

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Packing Sheets with pkg	pkg	demos/desktop/index	demos/data/index	summary Prebuilt NodeJS packages

import current from '/version.js'; import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs'; import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem'; import CodeBlock from '@theme/CodeBlock';

export const r = {style: {color:"red"}}; export const B = {style: {fontWeight:"bold"}};

pkg¹ is a tool for generating command-line tools that embed scripts.

SheetJS is a JavaScript library for reading and writing data from spreadsheets.

This demo uses pkg and SheetJS to create a standalone CLI tool for parsing spreadsheets and converting to other formats.

:::caution pass

With the official release of NodeJS SEA, Vercel opted to deprecate pkg. It is still useful for deploying apps with NodeJS version 18 or earlier since those versions do not support NodeJS SEA.

:::

:::note Tested Deployments

This demo was tested in the following deployments:

Architecture	Version	NodeJS	Date
darwin-x64	5.8.1	18.5.0	2025-04-21
darwin-arm	5.8.1	18.5.0	2025-06-18
win11-x64	5.8.1	18.5.0	2025-05-07
win11-arm	5.8.1	18.5.0	2025-02-23
linux-x64	5.8.1	18.5.0	2025-04-21
linux-arm	5.8.1	18.5.0	2025-02-15

:::

:::caution pass

pkg on Windows on ARM uses the X64 compatibility layer. It does not generate a native ARM64 binary!

:::

Integration Details

The SheetJS NodeJS module can be required from scripts. pkg will automatically handle packaging.

Script Requirements

Scripts that exclusively use SheetJS libraries and NodeJS built-in modules can be bundled using pkg.

The demo script xlsx-cli.js runs in NodeJS. It is a simple command-line tool for reading and writing spreadsheets.

Limitations

:::danger pass

When this demo was last tested, pkg failed with an error referencing node20:

> Targets not specified. Assuming:
  node20-linux-arm64, node20-macos-arm64, node20-win-arm64
> Error! No available node version satisfies 'node20'

pkg does not support NodeJS 20 or 22 or 24!

The local NodeJS version must be rolled back to version 18.

If nvm or nvm-windows was used to install NodeJS:

nvm install 18
nvm use 18

Otherwise, on macOS and Linux, n can manage the global installation:

sudo npm i -g n
sudo n 18

On Windows, it is recommended to use a prebuilt installer²

:::

Complete Example

0. Downgrade NodeJS to major version 18 or earlier.

1. Download the test file https://docs.sheetjs.com/pres.numbers:

curl -o pres.numbers https://docs.sheetjs.com/pres.numbers

2. Download xlsx-cli.js

curl -o xlsx-cli.js https://docs.sheetjs.com/cli/xlsx-cli.js

3. Install the dependencies:

{`\ npm i --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2`} {`\ pnpm install --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2`} {`\ yarn add https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2`}

4. Create the standalone program:

npx -y pkg xlsx-cli.js

This generates xlsx-cli-linux, xlsx-cli-macos, and xlsx-cli-win.exe .

:::info pass

If it is not possible to switch NodeJS versions, the -t flag can be used to override the target detection:

X64

npx -y pkg -t 'node18-win-x64,node18-linux-x64,node18-macos-x64' xlsx-cli.js

ARM64

npx -y pkg -t 'node18-win-arm64,node18-linux-arm64,node18-macos-arm64' xlsx-cli.js

:::

5. Run the generated program, passing pres.numbers as the argument:

./xlsx-cli-linux pres.numbers

./xlsx-cli-macos pres.numbers

.\xlsx-cli-win.exe pres.numbers

---

1. The project does not have a website. The source repository is publicly available. ↩︎

2. The NodeJS website hosts prebuilt installers. ↩︎