Chokidar

Minimal and efficient cross-platform file watching library

Why?

Raw fs.watch / fs.watchFile are useless: fs.watch reports many changes as an non-transparent rename, can fire twice for one change, and recursive watching differs across platforms. Chokidar normalizes all of that:

• Proper add / change / unlink (and addDir / unlinkDir) events, verified, deduplicated, with paths on every platform.
• Native fs.watch by default, which keeps CPU usage down; stat-based polling is available for network and other unusual filesystems.
• Recursive watching everywhere, with an optional depth limit, path filtering, and symlink support.
• Editor "atomic writes" (atomic) and chunked writes of large files (awaitWriteFinish) are handled.

Chokidar watches everything under the paths you give it, so scope them (and use ignored / depth) rather than watching more than you need.

Made for Brunch in 2012, it is now used in 30+ million projects and has proven itself in production environments. The current major is v6 (Oct 2026).

Getting started

npm install chokidar

import chokidar from 'chokidar';
// or: import { watch } from 'chokidar';
// or: const chokidar = require('chokidar');

chokidar.watch('src').on('all', (event, path) => console.log(event, path));

A fuller example:

import chokidar from 'chokidar';

const watcher = chokidar.watch('src', {
  // strings are exact paths (not globs), regexes test the whole path, functions get (path, stats?)
  ignored: [
    /(^|\/)\../, // dotfiles
    (path, stats) => stats?.isFile() && !path.endsWith('.js'), // only .js files
  ],
  ignoreInitial: true, // don't emit add/addDir for files that already exist
});

watcher
  .on('add', (path, stats) => console.log('added', path, stats?.size))
  .on('change', (path) => console.log('changed', path))
  .on('unlink', (path) => console.log('removed', path))
  .on('ready', () => console.log('initial scan done'))
  .on('error', (err) => console.error(err));

watcher.add(['lib', 'index.js']); // add more paths later
watcher.unwatch('lib'); // synchronous
console.log(watcher.getWatched()); // { '/abs': ['src'], '/abs/src': ['a.js', 'sub'], ... }
await watcher.close(); // async and terminal: create a new watcher to resume

Recipes:

// Large or chunked writes, and editors that save via temp file + rename
chokidar.watch('uploads', {
  awaitWriteFinish: { stabilityThreshold: 2000, pollInterval: 100 }, // wait for size to settle
  atomic: 100, // unlink + add within 100 ms becomes one change
});

// Network or otherwise unusual filesystems where fs.watch is unreliable
chokidar.watch('/mnt/nfs/data', { backend: 'polling', pollingInterval: 500 });

API

chokidar.watch(paths, [options]) returns an FSWatcher. paths is a string or an array of strings; files are watched, directories are watched recursively. All options with their defaults:

chokidar.watch('dir-or-file', {
  // Filtering
  ignored: undefined, // matcher or array of matchers, see below
  ignoreInitial: false,
  followSymlinks: true,
  cwd: undefined,
  depth: undefined, // unlimited
  // Backend
  backend: 'auto', // 'auto' | 'native' | 'native-recursive' | 'polling'
  pollingInterval: 100, // polling backend only
  pollingBinaryInterval: 300, // polling backend only
  // Event timing
  atomic: true, // false with backend: 'polling'; or a number of ms
  awaitWriteFinish: false, // or true, or { stabilityThreshold: 2000, pollInterval: 100 }
  alwaysStat: false,
  // Errors and lifecycle
  ignorePermissionErrors: false,
  persistent: true,
});

Filtering

• ignored (default: none). One matcher or an array of matchers. The whole path is tested (as passed to watch(), joined with cwd if set), not just the basename. Ignoring a directory ignores everything inside it. Directories above a path passed to watch() / add() are never ignored, so a missing path is still watched through its parent; their other contents are still filtered. A matcher is one of:
  • a string: an exact path. Relative strings are resolved against cwd (or the process cwd). Globs are not supported; see upgrading for the replacement pattern.
  • a RegExp: tested against the whole path with forward slashes, on Windows too, e.g. /(^|\/)\../ for dotfiles or /\/node_modules\//.
  • a function (path, stats?) => boolean: may be called twice per path, first with the path only, then with the path and its fs.Stats, so guard stat-based checks with stats?.isFile().
  • an object { path, recursive?: boolean }: an exact path, plus its subtree when recursive is true.
• ignoreInitial (default: false). When true, add / addDir are not emitted for paths discovered during the initial scan (before ready).
• followSymlinks (default: true). When false, symlinks are watched as themselves rather than followed; retargeting a link emits change.
• cwd (no default). Base directory that paths are resolved against; emitted paths are relative to it.
• depth (default: undefined, unlimited). Maximum number of subdirectory levels to traverse. Infinity means unlimited.

Backend

• backend (default: auto). Selects the filesystem observation backend:
  • auto uses native recursive watching on macOS and Windows and native per-directory watching elsewhere.
  • native uses one fs.watch subscription per directory.
  • native-recursive prefers fs.watch({ recursive: true }) and falls back to per-directory watching where recursive watching is unavailable. A finite depth also uses per-directory watching so nothing beyond the requested tree is subscribed.
  • polling uses Chokidar's stat-based polling scheduler. Useful for network and other non-standard filesystems; uses more CPU.
• pollingInterval (default: 100) and pollingBinaryInterval (default: 300, for recognized binary file extensions): polling periods in milliseconds, polling backend only. Polling compares size, modification time, existence, and (except on Windows) inode between polls; an in-place write that changes none of these is not detected.
• Environment overrides: CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING forces polling when truthy and disables it when falsy, even if backend: 'polling' is set in code; CHOKIDAR_INTERVAL overrides pollingInterval.
• Deprecated aliases kept for compatibility: usePolling: true means backend: 'polling'; interval / binaryInterval mean pollingInterval / pollingBinaryInterval (the new spellings win when both are given).

Event timing

• atomic (default: true with native backends, false with polling; or a number of milliseconds). Editors that save through a temp file and rename produce unlink then add; within the window (100 ms by default) Chokidar emits a single change instead. It also ignores common editor temp files (.swp / .swx, ~ backups, Sublime .subl*.tmp).
• awaitWriteFinish (default: false). By default add / change fire as soon as a file appears or changes, which for large or chunked writes can be before the write is finished. Set to true (or { stabilityThreshold: 2000, pollInterval: 100 }) to hold add / change until the file size has stayed constant for stabilityThreshold ms, checked every pollInterval ms. The right threshold depends on the OS and hardware: higher is safer and less responsive. Events from the initial scan are not held.
• alwaysStat (default: false). Always pass an fs.Stats object with add / addDir / change, issuing an extra stat when the backend did not provide one.

Errors and lifecycle

• ignorePermissionErrors (default: false). When true, EPERM / EACCES errors from unreadable paths are suppressed instead of emitted.
• persistent (default: true). Whether the watcher keeps the process alive while it is watching.

Methods

• .add(paths): start watching more files or directories (string or array).
• .unwatch(paths): stop watching files or directories (string or array). Synchronous; the paths stay ignored until they are .add()ed again.
• .close(): async and terminal. Removes all listeners and stops all owned work. Repeated calls return the same Promise; once closing has started, .add() throws and a new FSWatcher is required.
• .getWatched(): an object whose keys are the watched directories (absolute unless cwd is set) and whose values are arrays of the entry names inside each.
• .on(event, listener): FSWatcher is an EventEmitter; see events below.

Events

Troubleshooting

• ENOSPC: System limit for number of file watchers reached (Linux): the inotify watch limit is exhausted. Raise it with echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p, or watch less: narrow paths, add ignored (for example node_modules), set depth.
• EMFILE: too many open files: the process file-descriptor limit is exhausted. Watch less as above, raise the limit (ulimit -n 65536), or use backend: 'polling', which holds no watch handles at the cost of CPU.
• fsevents-related install errors (WARN optional dep failed, fsevents is not a constructor) are solved by upgrading to v4+.

Changelog

• v6 (Oct 2026): complete rewrite; new fs.watch(recursive) backend on macos + windows; requires Node.js 22+
• v5 (Nov 2025): ESM-only; requires Node.js 20+
• v4 (Sep 2024): remove glob support & fsevents dependency, decrease dep count from 13 to 1; requires Node.js 14+
• v3 (Apr 2019): massive CPU & RAM consumption improvements; 17x decrease in pkg size + deps; requires Node.js 8.16+
• v2 (Dec 2017): posix-style globs; bugfixes
• v1 (Apr 2015): glob support, symlink support, tons of bugfixes; requires Node.js 0.8+
• v0.1 (Apr 2012): extracted from Brunch

Upgrading

Version 6 requires Node.js 22.22 or newer. An FSWatcher cannot be reopened after .close() starts; construct a new watcher instead. Polling now defaults atomic to false, while an explicit atomic value is preserved. Use pollingInterval and pollingBinaryInterval for polling configuration; the v5 interval and binaryInterval spellings remain as deprecated aliases.

Globs were removed in v4. To replicate them:

// v3
chokidar.watch('**/*.js');
chokidar.watch('./directory/**/*');

// v4+: filter instead
chokidar.watch('.', {
  ignored: (path, stats) => stats?.isFile() && !path.endsWith('.js'), // only watch js files
});
chokidar.watch('./directory');

// or expand the glob yourself
import { glob } from 'node:fs/promises';
const watcher = chokidar.watch(await Array.fromAsync(glob('**/*.js')));

// unwatching
watcher.unwatch('**/*.js'); // v3
watcher.unwatch(await Array.fromAsync(glob('**/*.js'))); // v4+

Contributing

Run npm ci && npm run build && npm test (tests import the built files, so build first). Internals and design requirements are documented in docs/architecture.md; the cross-platform CI setup is in docs/vm-testing.md.

Also

Why was chokidar named this way? What's the meaning behind it?

Chowkidar is a transliteration of a Hindi word meaning 'watchman, gatekeeper', चौकीदार. This ultimately comes from Sanskrit _ चतुष्क_ (crossway, quadrangle, consisting-of-four). This word is also used in other languages like Urdu as (چوکیدار) which is widely used in Pakistan and India.

License

MIT (c) Paul Miller (https://paulmillr.com), see LICENSE file.