Inky Example Suite: Node.js

July 13, 2026 · View on GitHub

Ten runnable, numbered examples showing how to use the Inky email framework from Node.js — from the smallest possible transform up to a transactional-email capstone and a nunjucks/Total-CMS-style integration.

This is the Node.js port of the PHP reference suite (see its SUITE.md for the full, language-neutral porting spec that both suites implement against). The same ten examples, against the same required output markers, exist here.

Requires Inky v2. See the main inky repo.

The Node exception — read this first

The WASM/Node binding has no build. inky's WASM build (bindings/node) runs in a sandboxed WASM runtime with no filesystem access, so it cannot resolve <layout src="...">, <include src="...">, or <link href="*.scss"> — those all require reading files relative to a base_path, which only build needs. validate and migrate/migrate_with_details take a template string directly and never touch disk, so they're fully available in WASM — the gap is build alone. What the WASM binding DOES export directly (see bindings/node/inky.d.ts): transform, transform_with_config, transform_inline, transform_with_data, transform_hybrid, to_plain_text, migrate, migrate_with_details, validate, validate_with_config, version — all filesystem-free, single-call component/text transforms.

So this port uses two driver paths, chosen per example:

  • WASM binding directly (lib/wasm.mjs) — examples 01, 06, 07. These never needed a layout: 06's validate and 07's migrate/transformInline operate on a legacy template and its migrated form that are bare components with no filesystem refs, and neither validate nor migrate needs build's filesystem resolution in the first place — exactly the gap above, and exactly why these two land on WASM directly instead of the CLI.
  • inky CLI subprocess (lib/cli.mjs) — examples 02, 03, 04, 05, 08, 09, 10. These need real <layout>/<include>/<link href="*.scss"> resolution (02, 03, 04, 05, 08, and both capstones' emails/ trees), or (08 specifically) an option the WASM binding doesn't expose at all (bulletproof_buttons — transform_hybrid() takes no such parameter). Every such example shells out to a real inky build/validate/migrate invocation rather than faking the API surface, and says so in its own header comment.

Exact command used (see lib/cli.mjs): the prebuilt release binary at ../inky/target/release/inky, if present; otherwise falls back to cargo run -q -p inky-cli --release --manifest-path ../inky/Cargo.toml --. Both produce identical output — the fallback just costs a compile the first time.

The suite never loosens or reinterprets SUITE.md's required output markers to make them CLI-shaped: the markers are about the resulting files in dist/NN-name/, and a CLI invocation produces the same files a library call would, because both call the same inky-core pipeline underneath.

Requirements

  • Node.js >= 18
  • A Rust toolchain, to build libinky's CLI and WASM artifacts: 
    cd ../inky
cargo build -p inky-cli --release          # target/release/inky, used by lib/cli.mjs
cd bindings/node
wasm-pack build ../../crates/inky-wasm --target nodejs --out-dir . --out-name inky
    (this repo must be checked out as a sibling of inky/ — lib/wasm.mjs and lib/cli.mjs both resolve ../inky/... relative paths)
  • nunjucks (installed via npm install) — used only by example 10, as the closest Jinja-family templating engine to Twig available in the Node ecosystem (Total CMS's own engine is Twig; there's no Twig-for-Node)

60-second quick start

cd ../inky && cargo build -p inky-cli --release
cd bindings/node && wasm-pack build ../../crates/inky-wasm --target nodejs --out-dir . --out-name inky
cd ../../../inky-example-node
npm install
npm run examples     # runs every examples/*/run.mjs, writes dist/
npm run verify       # same, plus greps every output for its required markers

npm run verify prints ok for all ten examples. Output lands in dist/NN-name/ (gitignored).

The ten examples

#NameTeachesPath
01-quickstartquickstartThe smallest possible thing Inky does: transform() turns a <button> into table markup, no layout or data involved.WASM
02-build-pipelinebuild-pipelineThe full build pipeline in one call: shared layout + includes + a linked SCSS theme, all resolved and inlined.CLI
03-data-mergedata-mergeMerging JSON data into a template: variables, a conditional, and a loop rendered as real <tr> rows.CLI (--data)
04-themingthemingBuilding the identical template twice with a different linked SCSS theme each time.CLI (stdin + cwd)
05-plain-textplain-textDeriving a plain-text alternative alongside the HTML for multipart transactional email.CLI (--plain-text)
06-validate-gatevalidate-gateUsing validate() as a pre-send CI gate: block on errors, let warnings through.WASM
07-migratemigrateUpgrading a v1 Inky template to v2 syntax programmatically, with a reviewable change report.WASM (migrateWithDetails + transformInline)
08-outlook-hybridoutlook-hybridBuilding for Outlook desktop: hybrid column layout, bulletproof VML buttons, <outlook>/<not-outlook> branching.CLI
09-transactionaltransactional (capstone)A real three-email transactional set (welcome, receipt, password reset) built through EmailRenderer, a small production-shaped service class.CLI (via lib/email-renderer.mjs)
10-twig-cmstwig-cmsIntegrating Inky into a Jinja-family-templated CMS (nunjucks standing in for Twig): both valid processing orders, timed, plus the one <raw> rule that makes the fast path safe.CLI + nunjucks

Run any single example directly, e.g. node examples/03-data-merge/run.mjs — every run.mjs is a self-contained, top-to-bottom tutorial with comments at each decision point.

For Total CMS / CMS integrators

If you're wiring Inky into a Jinja-family-templated CMS (Total CMS's own engine is Twig; this port substitutes nunjucks since there's no Node Twig binding), start at 09-transactional to see the production-shaped EmailRenderer wrapper (lib/email-renderer.mjs), then read 10-twig-cms for the CMS-specific question: should the templating engine or Inky run first? Both orders are implemented, timed, and proven to agree — see that example's run.mjs and emails/newsletter.inky.njk header comment for the full trade-off, including the one <raw>-plus---no-inline-css rule that makes the faster, build-once-per-template order safe.

Layout

package.json           scripts: examples / verify / send; nunjucks dependency
bootstrap.mjs           dist-dir helper (inkyExample()) shared by every run.mjs
lib/wasm.mjs            thin wrapper around the WASM binding (../inky/bindings/node)
lib/cli.mjs             subprocess wrapper around the inky CLI (build/validate/migrate)
lib/email-renderer.mjs  EmailRenderer — Node port of src/EmailRenderer.php (example 09)
shared/                 brand layout, includes, SCSS themes used by examples 02-05 and 08
examples/NN-name/       one directory per example: run.mjs (tutorial) + verify.mjs (smoke test)
dist/                   build output (generated, gitignored)
run-all.mjs             runs every example (npm run examples / verify)
send.mjs                multipart send demo reading example 05's output

Examples 09 and 10 each ship their own self-contained emails/ tree (emails/layouts/, emails/themes/, emails/includes/) instead of referencing shared/ — see SUITE.md's "two fixture conventions" for why.

Porting deviations from the PHP reference (report these, don't hide them)

  • 07-migrate's "build the migrated template" step uses WASM's transformInline() instead of shelling out to the CLI, since legacy-v1.inky (and its migrated v2 form) never references a shared layout/theme — proving it "still builds cleanly" needs no filesystem access here, unlike the general case.
  • 08-outlook-hybrid uses the CLI even though it sits in the same "05–08" grouping the porting brief associated with the WASM path — two independent reasons: it needs the shared layout/theme (filesystem), and bulletproof_buttons has no WASM-exposed equivalent at all (transform_hybrid() takes no such parameter). See that example's run.mjs header comment.
  • 10-twig-cms substitutes nunjucks for Twig (no Twig binding exists for Node); the template file is newsletter.inky.njk, not newsletter.inky.twig. The lesson (Order A vs. Order B, <raw> as load-bearing rather than defense-in-depth, --no-inline-css) is unchanged — only the templating engine playing "the CMS's own engine" role differs. Nunjucks' syntax for everything this template uses ({{ }}, {% if %}, {% for %}, {%- -%} whitespace control, {# #} comments, custom filters) is Jinja-compatible with Twig, so the template reads the same either way.

Documentation