theMackabu/ant
★ 1,307 stars
C
Covered in week 2026-W26 · the 2026-06 report
javascript for 🐜's, a tiny runtime with big ambitions
What ant is
Ant is a lightweight, high-performance JavaScript runtime built from scratch. Built to carry more than it weighs without compromising performance.
From the repository README · read it on GitHub →
Transcript
Node.js ships a 120MB binary. Ant runs JavaScript in 8MB. Built from scratch in C with a hand-rolled JIT, Ant cold-starts in 5ms — five times faster than Node, nearly twice as fast as Bun. It passes 100% of the ES compatibility table. That means instant serverless functions, tiny edge deployments, and embedded JavaScript where Node's bulk won't fit. 317 stars, and the engine is no V8 wrapper. Is Node finally in trouble? Comment your take.