How to create a bundler-free OpenJS Architect serverless app with Babel

Author serverless AWS Lambda functions with next-generation JS, and without using bundlers

Published in

Beginners’ Guide

3 min readOct 31, 2019

In this article we’ll set up an OpenJS Architect project that uses Babel to compile code for AWS Lambda, but without adding a bundler or additional external dependencies. Folks looking for the most minimal serverless setup for a modern JS build step, this is article for you!

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Let’s get started! First:

npm init @architect ./babelapp

The Architect init script generates a new, single Lambda function project. Jump into the generated app and rename the source code folder. We’ll compile lib to src in a future step.

cd babelapp
mv src lib

Now let’s do some things you can’t (yet) do: ES Modules in Node, and optional chaining! Modify src/lib/get-index/index.js like so:

Install Babel

From the root of this app, let’s install the minimal dependencies required:

npm i @babel/cli 
npm i @babel/core
npm i @babel/plugin-proposal-optional-chaining
npm i @babel/preset-env

Configure Babel

Next, from the root create babel.config.js

Configure npm scripts

Add the classic npm start and npm run build commands, and set up npm run build to compile lib to src.

Set up CI/CD

Now that everything is working locally we can set up Begin to deploy our code from GitHub whenever we commit. Login to Begin with your GitHub account, click New app, and scroll to the big Import app button. (My first build was completed in 12.541 seconds!)

You can use the GitHub repo brianleroux/arc-example-babel-basic to get started.

That’s it!

Now you’re up and running with Babel on serverless without any extra dependencies. Here’s an ES module utilizing optional chaining in current Node + Lambda: