rbun

Embed Bun's JavaScript runtime in Rust with an API modelled on rquickjs: Runtime / Context / Ctx, Value / Object / Function / Promise / Array / String, Func / Async / MutFn / This / Rest, Class + #[rbun::class] / #[rbun::methods], Module + ModuleDef + Resolver / Loader, Persistent, async_with!, Promise::into_future, serde, …

The engine is JavaScriptCore with Bun's event loop, module loader (TypeScript, JSX, node:*, bun:*, node_modules), and Bun / Node runtime APIs. Values are handled through JavaScriptCore's public C API; the runtime is Bun's own Rust code (Bun ≥ 1.4 is written in Rust) linked as libbun_embed.dylib.

use rbun::prelude::*;use rbun::{AsyncContext,AsyncRuntime,Module, async_with};#[tokio::main(flavor = "current_thread")]asyncfnmain() -> rbun::Result<()>{
rbun::run_internal_process_mode();let rt = AsyncRuntime::new()?;let ctx = AsyncContext::full(&rt).await?;async_with!(ctx => |ctx| {
ctx.globals().set("add",Func::from(|a:f64, b:f64| a + b))?;let os = Module::import(&ctx,"node:os")?.into_future::<Object>().await?;let platform:String = os.get::<_,Function>("platform")?.call(())?;let sum:f64 = ctx.eval("add(1, 2)")?;
println!("{platform} {sum}");Ok::<_, rbun::Error>(())}).await}

Building

rbun links com/github/oven-sh/bun/dist/build/release/libbun_embed.dylib. Pristine upstream Bun is pinned as the com/github/oven-sh/bun/src Git submodule; _vendor.ts copies it into the ignored dist/ tree and applies the JSSG patch configuration from dev/improve/rbun/configs/patching/. The generated bun.gen.patch there is the reviewable source-to-dist diff.

# macOS prerequisites
brew install llvm@21 automake ccache cmake coreutils gnu-sed go icu4c libiconv libtool ninja pkg-config ruby
curl -fsSL https://bun.com/install | bash # a release bun drives bun's build
git submodule update --init --recursive
vp i
vpx _build-bun # ~20 min cold; installs the pinned nightly via rustup
cargo test# Rust API + Bun differential compatibility suites

_build-bun runs _vendor generate before building, so a normal build always consumes the pinned submodule plus the declared patches.

RBUN_BUN_LIB_DIR overrides where the dylib is looked up. Binaries that link rbun need an rpath to it (rbun's own examples/tests get one; a dependent crate's build.rs can read DEP_BUN_EMBED_LIB_DIR).

Upgrading Bun

_vendor update <sha|tag|branch>
_build-bun && cargo test

If an upstream change moved one of the patch anchors the codemod fails loudly (JSSG patch anchor drifted); fix dev/improve/rbun/configs/patching/codemods/bun/codemod.ts and its fixtures, then regenerate. Commit the changed submodule gitlink along with the patch updates. See the patching README.

Compatibility with rquickjs

The test suite in crates/rbun/tests/ ports the applicable public-API tests from rquickjs-core 0.11.0. Tests behind rquickjs-only optional features, such as its custom allocator and parallel modes, are outside the port's scope.

Five rquickjs tests not ported

Exactly five tests in the covered source modules are intentionally absent:

rquickjs source test	Why it is not ported
value/proxy.rs::test::from_javascript	It requires rquickjs's Proxy wrapper and QuickJS's non-standard JS_GetProxyTarget / JS_GetProxyHandler introspection. JavaScriptCore's public API has no equivalent. JavaScript-created proxies still work as ordinary rbun Objects.
value/proxy.rs::test::from_rust	It constructs a proxy from a Rust ProxyHandler whose traps are Rust closures. rbun does not provide that QuickJS-specific Rust proxy facade; create a native JavaScript Proxy instead.
value/proxy.rs::test::class_proxy	This is the same unsupported ProxyHandler bridge with a Rust-backed Class as its target. Rust-backed classes themselves are supported.
value/string.rs::test::from_javascript_c	It converts JS directly into rquickjs's engine-owned CString, which wraps JS_ToCStringLen / JS_FreeCString. JavaScriptCore exposes strings differently; use rbun::String::to_string() for JS-to-Rust conversion.
value/string.rs::test::to_javascript_c	It converts through that same rquickjs CString handle. rbun instead supports Rust &CStr / std::ffi::CString as IntoJs inputs.

These are omitted tests, not hidden failures. Four other upstream-derived tests remain in the suite with #[ignore] so their engine-level differences stay visible: class-cycle tracing, restoring a Persistent into an unrelated runtime, nested synchronous module evaluation, and the QuickJS host promise rejection tracker.

Differences and intentionally unsupported features

rbun models the rquickjs API where the two engines have compatible concepts; it is not a drop-in replacement for every rquickjs or Bun executable feature.

Compared with rquickjs

• One VM per thread, one realm. Bun boots once per thread and never tears the VM down. Every Runtime::new() on a thread returns a handle to that VM and every Context refers to the same global object, so state (globals, declared modules, user data) is shared. Run JS on a dedicated thread with a large stack (16 MB works well) and send work to it, as crates/rbun/tests/common does.
• Persistent::restore never fails with UnrelatedRuntime (there is no unrelated runtime).
• GC: every Rust-held value is protected for its lifetime, so values can live anywhere (boxed futures, thread-locals). Trace is a no-op; a cycle through Rust-held Class handles is never collected.
• Modules:Module::declare registers source with Bun's loader (Bun transpiles TS/JSX and declared modules may import anything Bun can); declare_def is evaluated lazily on first import, like rquickjs; when a Resolver declines a specifier rbun falls back to Bun's own resolution instead of failing; the module namespace is only available after evaluation; nested synchronous evaluation from inside a host call during module evaluation is not supported.
• Async:AsyncContext::async_with drives Bun's loop and host futures (ctx.spawn, Async host functions, Promised) while the block is pending. AsyncRuntime::drive() only moves host futures; use idle() / async_with to run Bun's timers and I/O.
• Errors: exception messages are JavaScriptCore's / Bun's, not QuickJS'. Error::Exception + Ctx::catch work like rquickjs.
• Eval:ctx.eval is strict by default (like rquickjs); EvalOptions { promise: true } evaluates the source as an async module.
• Intentionally unsupported rquickjs APIs:Proxy / ProxyHandler and rquickjs's engine-owned CString; these account for the five omitted tests above. JavaScript's native Proxy and Rust standard-library C-string inputs remain available.
• Compatibility no-ops:Context::base, Context::custom, and ContextBuilder all return Bun's full global realm; intrinsic selections are ignored. Runtime::set_memory_limit, set_gc_threshold, and set_max_stack_size are accepted but ignored because JavaScriptCore owns heap/GC policy and sizes its stack from the host thread. Spawn the JS thread with the stack size you need.
• Other accepted-but-ignored options:EvalOptions::global and backtrace_barrier, json_parse_ext's extension flag, json_stringify_replacer's replacer, json_stringify_replacer_space's replacer/space, and private-key filtering. Use JavaScript's JSON methods directly when replacer, reviver, or spacing behavior is required.
• Promise rejection tracking:set_host_promise_rejection_tracker stores the callback but Bun does not invoke it for engine-level unhandled rejections; use process.on("unhandledRejection").

Compared with the Bun executable

• Runtime embedding, not the CLI. rbun boots Bun's VM, APIs, transpiler, module loader, and event loop inside the host process. It does not expose package-manager/bundler workflows (bun install, CLI bun build, etc.), general CLI argument parsing, watch mode, or bunfig-driven startup configuration. The native test runner and one-shot bun run lifecycle are available as embedding APIs, but rbun is not a general replacement bun CLI.
• Host-driven lifetime and event loop. A VM is process-lifetime and bound to its creating thread. Unlike the Bun executable's automatic run-to-completion loop, the Rust host drives work with async_with!, AsyncRuntime::idle, Runtime::idle, or explicit ticks. A one-shot host can instead use Runtime::configure_entrypoint, Runtime::run_eval_source, and the non-returning Runtime::finish_process for Bun-native entrypoint, argv, beforeExit/exit, teardown, and exit-code behavior.
• Internal child modes. Call rbun::run_internal_process_mode() at the start of an embedding executable. On macOS, Bun.WebView re-executes that executable with a private environment marker; this hook transfers the child to Bun's native WebKit host loop before argument parsing or JSC startup.
• Platform support. The current shared-library build/link workflow is macOS-only (libbun_embed.dylib). Bun itself supports more platforms, but rbun's embedding link script has not yet been ported to them.

Bun differential compatibility suite

tests/bun_compat.rs runs 32 hermetic JS/TS fixtures in fresh processes under both the same-commit vendored Bun executable and rbun's production embedding path. It compares exit status, stdout/stderr, and filesystem side effects. Unlisted differences fail; intentional embedding differences are locked to exact snapshots in compat/expected-deviations.json.

cargo test --test bun_compat -- --nocapture
RBUN_COMPAT_FILTER=modules/ cargo test --test bun_compat -- --nocapture

That suite intentionally exercises the continuing, host-driven API rather than Bun's CLI commands. See compat/README.md for the test contract, extension format, overrides, and expected-deviation policy.

Native bun:test and pinned upstream suites

Runtime::new_test_with creates a process-exclusive VM with Bun's real Jest runner, command-line reporter, hooks, matchers, snapshots, fake timers, test environment, and exit lifecycle. Runtime::run_test_file executes one test file and returns Bun's native pass/fail/skip/todo/assertion counters. The rbun-test-host binary is the one-shot adapter used by the upstream harness; when an upstream test calls bunExe(), runtime-only script and -e children are routed back through that same embedded rbun host.

The upstream harness reads unchanged tests directly from the pinned src/ submodule, runs each file once with the matching Bun built in dist/ and once with embedded rbun, and requires both success plus identical summary counters:

_run-upstream-bun-tests sync
_run-upstream-bun-tests classify
_run-upstream-bun-tests run image
_run-upstream-bun-tests run webview-webkit # macOS/WebKit
_run-upstream-bun-tests run runtime-smoke
_run-upstream-bun-tests run runtime-subprocess-smoke
# Broad, environment-dependent sweeps; optional substring narrows either set.
_run-upstream-bun-tests run portable-runtime [substring]
_run-upstream-bun-tests run runtime-subprocess [substring]

At pinned Bun 1.4.2 revision 744846f84, classification finds 1,027 Bun/Node/Web test files: 463 in-process, 466 runtime-subprocess, 43 mixed runtime/CLI, and 55 CLI-only. Thus 564 files call bunExe()/bunRun(); the 466 runtime-only files are the broad subprocess target, while mixed and CLI files stay out until their CLI cases can be separated. At the previous revision 69c613875, the curated suites validated 780 unchanged upstream tests and 9,705 expect() calls: all 224 Bun.Image tests, all 59 WebKit Bun.WebView tests, 455 cross-runtime smoke tests, and 42 runtime-subprocess tests.

Those results are strong evidence for the covered surfaces, not proof that every Bun program is identical. The broad sets contain platform-, service-, privilege-, fixture-, and dependency-sensitive tests; the harness reports a reference failure rather than treating two unavailable/broken executions as compatible. Named suites and classification policy live in compat/upstream-suites.json.

Benchmarks

cargo bench runs benches/compare.rs, a criterion suite that drives rquickjs 0.11 and rbun through the same workloads (each engine on its own thread; rbun's one-time VM boot is printed once and excluded). Numbers below are from an Apple Silicon Mac, --profile=release Bun, 30 samples × 3 s; the last column is rbun's time relative to rquickjs (lower is better).

Benchmark	What it measures	rquickjs	rbun	rbun / rquickjs
runtime_create	Runtime::new + Context::full	128 µs	— (one-time ≈3 ms boot, then a no-op)	n/a
eval_expression	ctx.eval::<i32>("1 + 1")	1.86 µs	1.02 µs	0.55×
call_js_function/1000	1000 × Function::call((i,)) from Rust	59 µs	118 µs	2.0×
call_host_function	JS loop calling a Func 1000 times	73 µs	98 µs	1.3×
object_properties	1000 × (set ×2 + get ×2) on one object	138 µs	735 µs	5.3×
json_roundtrip	json_parse + json_stringify of a small doc	14.9 µs	3.6 µs	0.24×
script_fib_22	recursive fib(22)	1.58 ms	0.35 ms	0.22×
script_sort_20k	Array.prototype.sort of 20 000 numbers	10.5 ms	4.9 ms	0.46×
script_strings	2000 concatenations + split/map/join	725 µs	330 µs	0.45×
script_objects	5000 object literals + filter/map/reduce	4.02 ms	0.69 ms	0.17×
module_evaluate	declare + evaluate a tiny ES module	8.5 µs	27 µs	3.2×
promise_roundtrip/200	200 × resolve a JS promise from Rust and await it	162 µs	73 µs	0.45×

Reading the table:

• Anything that runs inside JS (scripts, JSON, promises) is 2–6× faster on rbun thanks to JavaScriptCore's JIT.
• Crossing the Rust ↔ JS boundary is slower on rbun. Values are NaN-boxed so numbers/booleans/undefined never touch the FFI, this/callee are only GC-rooted on demand and short property keys are interned, but each call still goes through the JavaScriptCore C API (JSObjectCallAsFunction, JSObjectGetPropertyForKey) and Object::set goes through a strict-mode JS helper so read-only assignments throw like they do in rquickjs. Property access is the biggest remaining gap.
• module_evaluate pays for the Bun module-loader round trip (Bun.pluginonResolve/onLoad) instead of QuickJS's in-process module table.

Layout

• crates/rbun/ — library, integration tests, examples, and host binaries (rbun-test-host, rbun-compat-host).
• crates/rbun-macros/ — #[rbun::class], #[rbun::methods].
• compat/ — hermetic fixtures, the exact expected-deviation manifest, and pinned upstream-suite selection/classification policy.
• com/github/oven-sh/bun/src/ — pristine Bun pinned as a Git submodule; upstream tests and the source revision come directly from this tree.
• com/github/oven-sh/bun/dist/ — ignored generated build input and local Bun artifacts. _vendor recreates it from src/, then adds the embedding C ABI/linker files and applies the two source transformations.
• dev/improve/rbun/configs/patching/ — canonical JSSG codemod, added files, fixtures, dependencies, and generated bun.gen.patch review diff.
• dev/improve/rbun/configs/bun/ — _build-bun and upstream test harness bins.