Netlify Lambda

This is an optional tool that helps with building or locally developing Netlify Functions with a simple webpack/babel build step.

The goal is to make it easy to write Lambda's with transpiled JS/TypeScript features and imported modules.

New Alternative to Netlify Lambda

Netlify-Lambda uses webpack to bundle up your functions and their dependencies for you, however this is not the only approach. If you have native node modules (or other dependencies that dont expect to be bundled like the Firebase SDK) then you may want to try the zipping approach.

We have recently integrated this functionality (zip-it-and-ship-it) into the Netlify CLI. Check the documentation here in the official CLI docs and support is available through our regular channels. The current drawback of this approach is no ability to serve these zipped functions locally, although we are working on this.

A bit information on manual zipping

You can still zip up and deploy functions by yourself, as has always been the case with Netlify Functions. Read here and here for instructions (more examples here)

Look out for more announcements on this in coming months.

Installation

We recommend installing locally rather than globally:

yarn add -D netlify-lambda

This will ensure your build scripts don't assume a global install which is better for your CI/CD (for example with Netlify's buildbot).

If you don't have a netlify.toml file, you'll need one (example). Define the functions field where the functions will be built to and served from, e.g.

# example netlify.toml
[build]
  command = "yarn build"
  functions = "lambda" #  netlify-lambda reads this
  publish = "build"

Usage

We expose two commands:

netlify-lambda serve <folder>
netlify-lambda build <folder>

At a high level, netlify-lambda takes a source folder (e.g. src/lambda, specified in your command) and outputs it to a built folder, (e.g. built-lambda, specified in your netlify.toml file).

The build function will run a single build of the functions in the folder.

The serve function will start a dev server for the source folder and route requests with a .netlify/functions/ prefix, with a default port of 9000:

folder/hello.js -> http://localhost:9000/.netlify/functions/hello

It also watches your files and restarts the dev server on change. Note: if you add a new file you should kill and restart the process to pick up the new file.

IMPORTANT:

• You need a netlify.toml file with a functions field.
• Every function needs to be a top-level js/ts/mjs file. You can have subfolders inside the netlify-lambda folder, but those are only for supporting files to be imported by your top level function. Files that end with .spec.* or .test.* will be ignored so you can colocate your tests.
• Function signatures follow the AWS event handler syntax but must be named handler. We use Node v8 so async functions are supported (beware common mistakes!). Read Netlify Functions docs for more info.

Environment variables in build and branch context

Read Netlify's documentation on environment variables. netlify-lambda should respect the env variables you supply in netlify.toml accordingly (except for deploy previews, which make no sense to locally emulate).

However, this is a relatively new feature, so if you encounter issues, file one.

If you need local-only environment variables that you don't place in netlify.toml for security reasons, you can configure webpack to use a .env file like in this example.

Lambda function examples

If you are new to writing Lambda functions, this section may help you. Function signatures should conform to one of either two styles. Traditional callback style:

exports.handler = function(event, context, callback) {
// your server-side functionality
callback(null, {
  statusCode: 200,
  body: JSON.stringify({
    message: `Hello world ${Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)}`
  })
});
};

or you can use async/await:

export async function handler(event, context) {
  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ message: `Hello world ${Math.floor(Math.random() * 10)}` })
  };
}

For more Functions examples, check:

• https://functions-playground.netlify.com/ (introductory)
• https://functions.netlify.com/examples/ (our firehose of all functions examples)
• the blogposts at the bottom of this README

Using with create-react-app, Gatsby, and other development servers

Why you need to proxy (for beginners)

react-scripts (the underlying library for create-react-app) and other popular development servers often set up catchall serving for you; in other words, if you try to request a route that doesn't exist, the dev server will try to serve you /index.html. This is problematic when you are trying to hit a local API endpoint like netlify-lambda sets up for you - your browser will attempt to parse the index.html file as JSON. This is why you may see this error:

Uncaught (in promise) SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0

If this desribes your situation, then you need to proxy for local development. Read on. Don't worry it's easier than it looks.

Proxying for local development

⚠️IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CORS ISSUES⚠️

When your function is deployed on Netlify, it will be available at /.netlify/functions/function-name for any given deploy context. It is advantageous to proxy the netlify-lambda serve development server to the same path on your primary development server.

Say you are running webpack-serve on port 8080 and netlify-lambda serve on port 9000. Mounting localhost:9000 to /.netlify/functions/ on your webpack-serve server (localhost:8080/.netlify/functions/) will closely replicate what the final production environment will look like during development, and will allow you to assume the same function url path in development and in production.

• If you are using with create-react-app, see netlify/create-react-app-lambda for an example of how to do this with create-react-app. setupProxy is partially documented in the CRA docs. You can also learn how to do this from scratch in a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ldSM98nCHI
• If you are using Gatsby, see their Advanced Proxying docs. This is implemented in the JAMstack Hackathon Starter, and here is an accompanying blogpost: Turning the Static Dynamic: Gatsby + Netlify Functions + Netlify Identity.
• If you are using Next.js, see this issue for how to proxy.
• If you are using Vue CLI, you may just use https://github.com/netlify/vue-cli-plugin-netlify-lambda/.
• If you are using with Angular CLI, see the instructions below.

Example webpack config:

module.exports = {
  mode: 'development',
  devServer: {
    proxy: {
      '/.netlify': {
        target: 'http://localhost:9000',
        pathRewrite: { '^/.netlify/functions': '' }
      }
    }
  }
};

Using with `Angular CLI`

CORS issues when trying to use netlify-lambdas locally with angular? you need to set up a proxy.

Firstly make sure you are using relative paths in your app to ensure that your app will work locally and on Netlify, example below...

this.http.get('/.netlify/functions/jokeTypescript');

Then place a proxy.config.json file in the root of your project, the contents should look something like...

{
  "/.netlify/functions/*": {
    "target": "http://localhost:9000",
    "secure": false,
    "logLevel": "debug",
    "changeOrigin": true
  }
}

• The key should match up with the location of your Transpiled functions as defined in your netlify.toml
• The target should match the port that the lambdas are being served on (:9000 by default)

When you run up your Angular project you need to pass in the proxy config with the flag --proxy-config like so...

  ng serve --proxy-config proxy.config.json

To make your life easier you can add these to your scripts in package.json

  "scripts": {
    "start": "ng serve --proxy-config proxy.config.json",
    "build": "ng build --prod --aot && yarn nlb",
    "nls": "netlify-lambda serve src_functions",
    "nlb": "netlify-lambda build src_functions"
  }

Obviously you need to run up netlify-lambda & angular at the same time.

Webpack Configuration

By default the webpack configuration uses babel-loader to load all js files. Any .babelrc in the directory netlify-lambda is run from will be respected. If no .babelrc is found, a few basic settings are used.

If you need to use additional webpack modules or loaders, you can specify an additional webpack config with the -c/--config option when running either serve or build.

For example, have a file with:

// webpack.functions.js 
module.exports = {
  optimization: { minimize: false }
};

Then specify netlify-lambda serve --config ./webpack.functions.js. If using VSCode, it is likely that the sourceMapPathOverrides have to be adapted for breakpoints to work. Read here for more info on how to modify the webpack config.

The additional webpack config will be merged into the default config via webpack-merge's merge.smart method.

Babel configuration

The default webpack configuration uses babel-loader with a few basic settings.

However, if any .babelrc is found in the directory netlify-lambda is run from, or folders above it (useful for monorepos), it will be used instead of the default one.

If you need to run different babel versions for your lambda and for your app, check this issue to override your webpack babel-loader.

Use with TypeScript

We added .ts and .mjs support recently - check here for the PR and usage tips.

1. Install @babel/preset-typescript

npm install --save-dev @babel/preset-typescript

You may also want to add typescript @types/node @types/aws-lambda.

2. Create a custom .babelrc file:

{
  "presets": [
    "@babel/preset-typescript",
    "@babel/preset-env"
  ],
  "plugins": [
    "@babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties",
    "@babel/plugin-transform-object-assign",
    "@babel/plugin-proposal-object-rest-spread"
  ]
}

3. (Optional) if you have @types/aws-lambda installed, your lambda functions can use the community typings for Handler, Context, Callback. See the typescript instructions in create-react-app-lambda for an example.

Check https://github.com/sw-yx/create-react-app-lambda-typescript for a CRA + Lambda full Typescript experience.

CLI flags/options

There are additional CLI options:

-h --help
-c --config
-p --port
-s --static

--config option

If you need to use additional webpack modules or loaders, you can specify an additional webpack config with the -c/--config option when running either serve or build.

For example, have a file with:

// webpack.functions.js 
module.exports = {
  optimization: { minimize: false }
};

Then specify netlify-lambda serve --config ./webpack.functions.js.

--port option

The serving port can be changed with the -p/--port option.

--static option

If you need an escape hatch and are building your lambda in some way that is incompatible with our build process, you can skip the build with the -s or --static flag. More info here.

Netlify Identity

Make sure to read the docs on how Netlify Functions and Netlify Identity work together. Basically you have to make your request with an authorization header and a Bearer token with your Netlify Identity JWT supplied. You can get this JWT from any of our Identity solutions from gotrue-js to netlify-identity-widget.

Since for practical purposes we cannot fully emulate Netlify Identity locally, we provide simple JWT decoding inside the context of your function. This will give you back the user info you need to work with.

Minor note: For the identity field, since we are not fully emulating Netlify Identity, we can't give you details on the Identity instance, so we give you unambiguous strings so you know not to rely on it locally: NETLIFY_LAMBDA_LOCALLY_EMULATED_IDENTITY_URL and NETLIFY_LAMBDA_LOCALLY_EMULATED_IDENTITY_TOKEN. In production, of course, Netlify Functions will give you the correct identity.url and identity.token fields. We find we dont use this info often in our functions so it is not that big of a deal in our judgment.

Debugging

To debug lambdas, you can use the --inspect flag. Additionally:

1. make sure that sourcemaps are built along the way (e.g. in the webpack configuration and the tsconfig.json if typescript is used)
2. webpack's minification/uglification is turned off (see below):

For example, have a file with:

// webpack.functions.js 
module.exports = {
  optimization: { minimize: false }
};

Then specify netlify-lambda serve --config ./webpack.functions.js. If using VSCode, it is likely that the sourceMapPathOverrides have to be adapted for breakpoints to work. Read here for more info on how to modify the webpack config.

Netlify Functions run in Node v8.10 and you may need to run the same version to mirror the environment locally. Also make sure to check that you aren't committing one of these common Node 8 mistakes in Lambda!

Don't forget to search our issues in case someone has run into a similar problem you have!

Example functions and Tutorials

You can do a great deal with lambda functions! Here are some examples for inspiration:

• Basic Netlify Functions tutorial: https://flaviocopes.com/netlify-functions/
• Netlify's list of Function examples: https://functions-playground.netlify.com/ (Even more in the README as well as our full list https://functions.netlify.com/examples/)
• Slack Notifications: https://css-tricks.com/forms-auth-and-serverless-functions-on-gatsby-and-netlify/#article-header-id-9
• URL Shortener: https://www.netlify.com/blog/2018/03/19/create-your-own-url-shortener-with-netlifys-forms-and-functions/
• Gatsby + Netlify Identity + Functions: Turning the Static Dynamic: Gatsby + Netlify Functions + Netlify Identity
• Raymond Camden's Adding Serverless Functions to Your Netlify Static Site
• Travis Horn's Netlify Lambda Functions from Scratch
• JAMstack with Divya Sasidharan & Phil Hawksworth | Devchat.tv - Great discussion on the problems that Netlify Functions solve
• Netlify function error reporting with Sentry - automatic error reporting for your Netlify functions, so you know any time they fail.
• Submit your blogpost here!

These libraries pair very well for extending your functions capability:

• Middleware: https://github.com/middyjs/middy
• GraphQL: https://www.npmjs.com/package/apollo-server-lambda
• Any others to suggest?

Other community approaches

If you wish to serve the full website from lambda, check this issue.

If you wish to run this server for testing, check this issue.

If you wish to emulate more Netlify functionality locally, check this repo: https://github.com/8eecf0d2/netlify-local. We are considering merging the projects here.

All of the above are community maintained and not officially supported by Netlify.

Changelog

• v1.0: https://twitter.com/Netlify/status/1050399820484087815 Webpack 4 and Babel 7
• v1.1: https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1069544181259849729 Typescript support
• v1.2: https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1083446733374337024 Identity emulation (& others)
• v1.3: https://github.com/netlify/netlify-lambda/releases/tag/v1.3.0

License

MIT