bunx

Use bunx to auto-install and run packages from npm. It's Bun's equivalent of npx or yarn dlx.

$ bunx cowsay "Hello world!"

Packages can declare executables in the "bin" field of their package.json. These are known as package executables or package binaries.

{
  // ... other fields
  "name": "my-cli",
  "bin": {
    "my-cli": "dist/index.js"
  }
}

These executables are commonly plain JavaScript files marked with a shebang line to indicate which program should be used to execute them. The following file indicates that it should be executed with node.

#!/usr/bin/env node

console.log("Hello world!");

These executables can be run with bunx,

$ bunx my-cli

As with npx, bunx will check for a locally installed package first, then fall back to auto-installing the package from npm. Installed packages will be stored in Bun's global cache for future use.

Arguments and flags

To pass additional command-line flags and arguments through to the executable, place them after the executable name.

$ bunx my-cli --foo bar

Shebangs

By default, Bun respects shebangs. If an executable is marked with #!/usr/bin/env node, Bun will spin up a node process to execute the file. However, in some cases it may be desirable to run executables using Bun's runtime, even if the executable indicates otherwise. To do so, include the --bun flag.

$ bunx --bun my-cli

The --bun flag must occur before the executable name. Flags that appear after the name are passed through to the executable.

$ bunx --bun my-cli # good
$ bunx my-cli --bun # bad

Package flag

--package <pkg> or -p <pkg> - Run binary from specific package. Useful when binary name differs from package name:

$ bunx -p renovate renovate-config-validator
$ bunx --package @angular/cli ng

To force bun to always be used with a script, use a shebang.

#!/usr/bin/env bun

Usage

$ bunx [flags] <package>[@version] [flags and arguments for the package]

Execute an npm package executable (CLI), automatically installing into a global shared cache if not installed in node_modules.

Flags

Examples

# Run Prisma migrations
$ bunx prisma migrate

# Format a file with Prettier
$ bunx prettier foo.js

# Run a specific version of a package
$ bunx uglify-js@3.14.0 app.js

# Use --package when binary name differs from package name
$ bunx -p @angular/cli ng new my-app

# Force running with Bun instead of Node.js, even if the executable contains a Node shebang
$ bunx --bun vite dev foo.js