canirequire

canirequire › CommonJS › readable-stream

Is readable-stream ESM-only? Can you require() it?

Node.js Streams, a user-land copy of the stream library from Node.js

Last verified Sep 9, 2026 against readable-stream@4.7.0. JSON

CommonJS CommonJS — require() works on every Node.js version

readable-stream ships CommonJS only. require("readable-stream") works everywhere. import "readable-stream" also works because Node.js and Bun can import CommonJS from ES modules, but only the default export is guaranteed; named imports depend on Node's static analysis of the module.

Latest
4.7.0 (Jan 7, 2025)
Module format
CommonJS
Last CommonJS version
4.7.0
TypeScript types
@types/readable-stream
Node engines
^12.22.0 || ^14.17.0 || >=16.0.0
Weekly downloads
311.7M
License
MIT

Does readable-stream@4.7.0 actually load? Runtime test results

Installed and executed on Sep 9, 2026 with require("readable-stream") from a CommonJS file and import "readable-stream" from an ES module.

Runtimerequire("readable-stream")import "readable-stream"
Node.js 18✓ works✓ works
Node.js 20✓ works✓ works
Node.js 22✓ works✓ works
Node.js 24✓ works✓ works
Node.js 26✓ works✓ works
Bun 1.4✓ works✓ works

How to import readable-stream

ES modules (import)

import readableStream from "readable-stream";

Named imports from a CommonJS package only work when Node.js can statically detect them. If a named import fails, use the default import and destructure.

CommonJS (require)

const readableStream = require("readable-stream");

Module format by version

Derived from the type, main and exports fields of every stable release on npm (90 versions; the newest 60 shown).

VersionsFormatFirst published
2.0.2 – 4.7.0CommonJSJul 16, 2015

Frequently asked

Is readable-stream ESM-only?

readable-stream@4.7.0 is a CommonJS package. readable-stream ships CommonJS only. require("readable-stream") works everywhere. import "readable-stream" also works because Node.js and Bun can import CommonJS from ES modules, but only the default export is guaranteed; named imports depend on Node's static analysis of the module.

Can I import readable-stream with ES module syntax?

Yes. import readableStream from "readable-stream" works in Node.js and Bun because they support importing CommonJS modules. Named imports work only when Node.js can statically detect the exports.

Does readable-stream work in Bun?

Yes. import "readable-stream" loaded successfully in Bun 1.4 on Sep 9, 2026.

Does readable-stream ship TypeScript types?

Not bundled. Install the community types with "npm install -D @types/readable-stream".

Links

Other commonjs packages

Similar popularity