Use Bun as your package manager in any Laravel project

Table of contents:

• Why would you switch away from NPM, pnpm, or Yarn?
• How to install Bun on macOS using Homebrew
• How to install on Linux and WSL
• How to install Bun on Windows
• Make some room to replace NPM, Yarn, or pnpm with Bun
• Install your front-end dependencies using Bun
• Add a package using Bun
• Remove a package using Bun
• Run your scripts using Bun

Bun is a fast JavaScript all-in-one toolkit which can be used as a package manager. I wrote about it in more details: What’s the fuss around Bun’s package manager abilities?

But first, let’s see why you should care about Bun as a Laravel developer.

Why would you switch away from NPM, pnpm, or Yarn?

Most Laravel developers don’t use Node.js for anything other than compiling front-end assets. So, why would you take some time to switch to Bun instead of sticking with a regular Node.js runtime?

Well, if you actually test Bun, you will notice how incredibly faster than Node.js it is. Up to 30x!

1. Your front-end dependencies will install faster.
2. Your assets will compile faster.
3. Your continuous integration environment will also run faster since installing and compiling front-end dependencies takes less time.

How to install Bun on macOS using Homebrew

Installing Bun on macOS couldn’t be easier. Just add the new source using brew tap oven-sh/bun and install Bun by running brew install bun.

How to install on Linux and WSL

Installing Bun on Linux is as easy as on macOS. Run curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash. That’s it!

Linux users are recommended to make sure the unzip package is installed first. You should also be running the kernel in at least version 5.1, even if version 5.6 or higher is a better choice.

How to install Bun on Windows

For now, unfortunately, Bun’s package manager abilities are not available for Windows. But this shouldn’t be a problem if you are running WSL.

There’s currently an experimental version for it, but it’s not recommended to use it in production.

Make some room to replace NPM, Yarn, or pnpm with Bun

Laravel doesn’t require a specific package manager. Which is great news for Bun!

If you were using NPM or pnpm, remove their lock files because you won’t need them anymore since Bun uses its own lock file called bun.lockb by default.

If you were using NPM:

rm package-lock.json

If you were using pnpm:

rm pnpm-lock.yaml

And if you were using Yarn:

rm yarn.lock

Install your front-end dependencies using Bun

To install your dependencies using Bun, use bun install. So, how fast was it? I bet you didn’t expect that!

Oh and by the way, in case of a problem, if you want to disable the cache, use bun install --no-cache.

For additional information and options, please refer to the official documentation of the bun install command.

Add a package using Bun

Adding a package using Bun can easily be done using the bun add command. You will certainly appreciate how incredibly fast it is as well.

Here’s an example with 3 packages:

bun add tailwindcss autoprefixer postcss

For additional information and options, please refer to the official documentation of the bun add command.

Remove a package using Bun

Removing a package using Bun can easily be done using the bun remove command. You will certainly appreciate how incredibly fast it is as well.

Let’s use Axios as an example, as it’s still installed by default on every new Laravel project:

bun remove axios

For additional information and options, please refer to the official documentation of the bun remove command.

Run your scripts using Bun

Bun should be able to be integrated into your existing workflow without any issues. Run the scripts defined in your package.json file just like before using bun run.

We can run our compilation process, which uses Vite or Mix by default on Laravel projects:

bun run dev

For additional information and options, please refer to the official documentation of the bun run command.