🧹 clean-error-stack

Clean up messy Node.js stack traces during development. Filter out node_modules and internal Node.js code. Focus only on your code! 🎯

Why?

Have you ever been frustrated by error messages that look like this?

Error: Something went wrong
    at Object.<anonymous> (/your-app/index.js:10:11)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1159:14)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1213:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1037:32)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:878:12)
    at node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:284:15
    at node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5
    at node_modules/body-parser/index.js:73:21
    ...50+ more lines of framework internals...

With clean-error-stack, you get:

Error: Something went wrong
    at Object.<anonymous> (/your-app/index.js:10:11)

Clean, focused, and clickable in your terminal! 🎉

✨ Features

• ✅ Automatic Filtering: Removes node_modules, node:internal, (internal/, and <anonymous> lines
• 🎨 Colored Output: Error messages in red, stack traces in yellow using native ANSI codes
• 🔗 Editor Integration: File paths and line numbers preserved (clickable in VS Code!)
• ⚡ Zero Configuration: One-line import to activate
• 🛡️ Production-Safe: Automatically disabled in production environments
• 🪶 Zero Dependencies: Pure Node.js with no external packages required
• 🚀 TypeScript Support: Full type definitions included

📦 Installation

npm install clean-error-stack

🚀 Quick Start

Automatic Mode (Recommended)

Add this single line at the top of your application's entry point:

// index.js, app.js, or server.js
import 'clean-error-stack/register';

// That's it! All errors are now automatically cleaned

Real-world example:

import 'clean-error-stack/register';
import express from 'express';

const app = express();

app.get('/error', (req, res) => {
  throw new Error('Oops! Something broke');
});

app.listen(3000);

When you hit /error, you'll see:

Error: Oops! Something broke
    at /project/src/app.js:6:9

Instead of 50+ lines of Express internals! 🎯

Manual Mode

For fine-grained control over specific errors:

import { cleanStack } from 'clean-error-stack';

try {
  dangerousOperation();
} catch (error) {
  console.error(cleanStack(error));
}

🎬 Before & After

❌ Before: Messy and Overwhelming

Error: User validation failed
    at validateUser (/app/services/user.js:45:11)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async Server.<anonymous> (node:internal/http:1:1)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1159:14)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1213:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1037:32)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:878:12)
    at node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:284:15
    at node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5
    at node_modules/express/lib/application.js:640:50
    at node_modules/body-parser/index.js:73:21
    at node_modules/compression/index.js:119:11
    ...40+ more lines...

✅ After: Clean and Actionable

Error: User validation failed
    at validateUser (/app/services/user.js:45:11)

You immediately see where the problem is in your code! 🎯

📖 Use Cases

Express.js Application

import 'clean-error-stack/register';
import express from 'express';

const app = express();

app.get('/users/:id', async (req, res) => {
  const user = await getUserById(req.params.id);
  if (!user) {
    throw new Error('User not found');
  }
  res.json(user);
});

app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
  console.error(err);
  res.status(500).json({ error: err.message });
});

app.listen(3000);

CLI Tools

#!/usr/bin/env node
import 'clean-error-stack/register';
import { parseArgs } from 'util';
import { processFile } from './processor.js';

const args = parseArgs({ options: { file: { type: 'string' } } });
await processFile(args.values.file);

Testing & Debugging

import 'clean-error-stack/register';
import { test } from 'node:test';

test('should handle invalid input', async () => {
  await expect(processData(null)).rejects.toThrow();
});

📝 API Reference

cleanStack(stackOrError)

Cleans a stack trace string or Error object.

Parameters:

• stackOrError (string | Error): Stack trace string or Error object

Returns: Cleaned and colored stack trace string

Example:

import { cleanStack } from 'clean-error-stack';

try {
  riskyOperation();
} catch (error) {
  const cleaned = cleanStack(error.stack);
  console.log(cleaned);
}

cleanError(error)

Cleans the stack trace of an Error object in-place.

Parameters:

• error (Error): Error object to clean

Returns: The same Error object with cleaned stack

Example:

import { cleanError } from 'clean-error-stack';

const error = new Error('Something failed');
cleanError(error);
console.error(error);

⚙️ How It Works

The package employs three strategies to catch and clean all errors:

1. Error.prepareStackTrace Override: Intercepts stack trace generation at the source
2. uncaughtException Handler: Catches synchronous errors that weren't caught
3. unhandledRejection Handler: Catches async errors (unhandled Promise rejections)

Filtering Logic:

• Removes lines containing node_modules
• Removes Node.js internal modules (node:internal, (internal/)
• Removes anonymous functions (<anonymous>)
• Preserves file paths, line numbers, and column numbers for editor integration

🛡️ Production Safety

This package only works in development mode. When NODE_ENV=production, it does absolutely nothing.

Your production logs remain complete and unmodified for debugging and monitoring tools.

# Development mode (cleaning active)
npm run dev

# Production mode (cleaning disabled, original logs preserved)
NODE_ENV=production npm start

🧪 Testing

Run the included test suite:

npm test

The test-demo.js file demonstrates:

• ✅ Synchronous errors (caught)
• ✅ Asynchronous errors (unhandled rejections)
• ✅ Uncaught exceptions

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

📄 License

MIT © clean-error-stack contributors

💡 Tips

• Add import 'clean-error-stack/register' as the first line in your entry point
• Works great with nodemon, ts-node, and other development tools
• Compatible with Node.js 14+
• Works in both ESM and CommonJS projects (this package uses ESM)
• Zero dependencies - Uses native Node.js ANSI color codes for terminal output

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Made with ❤️ for developers who deserve clean, readable error messages

Star ⭐ this repo if it saved you from scrolling through endless stack traces!