Developers can now augment stock Node.js with Nub, a Rust‑based toolkit that mimics Bun's developer experience without swapping runtimes. It runs files, manages scripts, and handles dependencies while preserving native Node APIs. Benchmarks show a 24× faster script dispatch compared to pnpm run, and a 2.5× speedup for installs.

Nub automatically resolves the Node version a project declares—reading .node-version, package.json engines, or nvmrc—and installs it on demand. The tool ships built‑in loaders for formats like YAML and JSON5, unflags experimental APIs such as node:sqlite, and polyfills features like Temporal for older Node releases. Its watch mode tracks the full dependency graph, eliminating manual glob lists.

The package manager mirrors pnpm's CLI flags, yet avoids the JavaScript bootstrap overhead, delivering install times up to 29% faster than bun and 2.5× faster than npm. Nub also offers drop‑in replacements for npx and pnpm dlx via nubx, cutting execution latency to 11 ms for simple commands. The project positions itself as a one‑stop solution for Node developers seeking speed and modern language support without vendor lock‑in.