Migration from vercel/pkg

vercel/pkg was archived in January 2024 and no longer receives updates. yao-pkg/pkg is the actively maintained fork and the recommended path forward.

For the vast majority of projects, migration is a one-line dependency rename — nothing else changes.

TL;DR

npm

npm uninstall pkg
npm install --save-dev @yao-pkg/pkg

pnpm

pnpm remove pkg
pnpm add -D @yao-pkg/pkg

yarn

yarn remove pkg
yarn add -D @yao-pkg/pkg

Update any package.json scripts that called the bin:

 {
   "scripts": {
-    "build": "pkg ."
+    "build": "pkg ."
   },
   "devDependencies": {
-    "pkg": "^5.8.1",
+    "@yao-pkg/pkg": "^6.15.0"
   }
 }

The CLI name (pkg) is unchanged — only the npm package name differs. All existing pkg ., pkg index.js, pkg -t ... commands keep working.

What's different

Node.js version support

Fork	Supported Node.js versions
vercel/pkg	12, 14, 16, 18
yao-pkg/pkg	22, 24 (Node >= 22 required on the build host)

yao-pkg/pkg drops the older EOL Node.js versions and keeps pace with upstream LTS. If you were packaging node18-... binaries with vercel/pkg, you'll need to update your targets to node22-... or node24-....

New features beyond vercel/pkg

• SEA mode — stock Node.js packaging via the official Single Executable Applications API. No patched Node.js.
• Enhanced SEA — full dependency walker + VFS on top of SEA. ESM with top-level await works everywhere. See SEA vs Standard.
• Improved ESM — most ESM features work transparently now, no manual transform needed. See ESM support.
• Active bug fixes — regular releases, responsive issue triage, up-to-date base binaries via pkg-fetch.
• Workers + native addons work in both standard and SEA modes.

Breaking changes from vercel/pkg@5.x

For 99% of projects, none. The CLI, package.json config schema, and API are source-compatible.

If you hit a corner case:

• Dropped Node.js 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 targets — update to node22 or node24.
• The public / public-packages semantics are unchanged, but --no-bytecode now requires explicit --public-packages if your deps have non-SPDX licenses. This was already the case in vercel/pkg, but the enforcement is stricter.
• A few internal APIs under lib/ have been refactored. If you were importing deep paths instead of the documented { exec } entry point, you may need to adjust. See API for the stable surface.

Verify the migration

pkg --version   # should print a 6.x version
pkg .           # or your existing command

If the build succeeds and the output runs the same as before, you're done.

Running into trouble?

• CLI hangs on first run. That's pkg-fetch downloading a fresh base binary on the first build for the new fork. Let it finish; subsequent builds hit the cache.
• Error about missing target. Check your target against pkg-fetch releases — older Node.js versions may no longer be built.
• Anything else. Open an issue on yao-pkg/pkg with a reproduction; maintainers actively triage.

See also

• Getting started
• SEA vs Standard — the biggest new feature since vercel/pkg
• pkg-fetch — where the base binaries come from