Node.js 10 available for App Engine, in lockstep with Long Term Support

Today, the Node.js Release Working Group began the Long Term Support (LTS) of Node.js 10.x, establishing it as the preferred, stable version of the runtime. App Engine, our fully managed serverless application platform, has supported Node.js as a runtime since 2016, and today, we are introducing both the beta availability of Node.js 10 on App Engine standard environment, and making Node.js 10 the default version on the flexible environment.

Node.js 10 on App Engine standard environment is a second generation runtime, which means it uses an unmodified version of Node.js running on a regular Ubuntu distribution, and you can use any module available on npm. In addition, we’ve heard your feedback about running your existing Node.js apps on App Engine standard environment, and have added new functionality to better support both Node.js 8 and 10 (see release notes):

• Yarn package manager: if a yarn.lock file is present along with your source, your dependencies will be installed using yarn.

• Local dependencies: package.json can now reference local dependencies, e.g., "my-local-module: "file:./my-path".

• Custom build step: If a script named gcp-build is present in package.json, this script will be executed at deployment time with access to dependencies declared in devDependencies.

Many Node.js customers such as JDA Software are excited to deploy their Node apps quickly and easily on App Engine:

"Node.js on App Engine standard environment allows us to build and deploy solutions quickly, without having to manage the underlying platform. Further, the new App Engine standard sandbox technology minimizes startup time, enabling us to better handle spikes in demand for faster scalability, as well as scale down to and from 0 resulting in cost saving. In addition, App Engine’s zero server-management and -configuration  lets us focus our efforts on our business domain expertise and not on maintenance of the platform." - Gabriel Kohen, Enterprise Architect & Technical Fellow, JDA Software

Also be aware that the Node.js Project will end Long Term Support for Node 8.x in December 2019, and that we’ll stop supporting Node 8.x in App Engine at the same time. To ensure you can continue to deploy your Node.js apps, we invite you to start planning for your migration to Node.js 10 today. You can get started using the App Engine free tier—just follow our Quickstart to learn how to deploy your app.