How to Replace nodemon with Native Node.js Watch

Feb 21, 2026

Cowrie

Dev @ Bswen

Purpose

This post demonstrates how to replace nodemon with native Node.js watch features for better performance.

Environment

Node.js 18+
npm or yarn
Basic Node.js project

The Problem

When I run my development server with nodemon, I got this:

$ npm run dev

> [email protected] dev
> nodemon --exec node --inspect src/index.js

[nodemon] 3.0.3
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching path(s): *.*
[nodemon] watching extensions: js,json,mjs,cjs
[nodemon] starting `node --inspect src/index.js`
Server running on port 3000

The issue is nodemon uses a lot of memory and restarts are slow. I got tired of waiting for nodemon to restart my server on every file change.

What I Was Doing

I was running a simple Express.js application and noticed nodemon was using 200MB of RAM just for watching files. The restart delays were affecting my productivity.

Here’s my setup:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "nodemon --exec node --inspect src/index.js",
    "start": "node src/index.js
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.18.2
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "nodemon": "^3.0.3
  }
}

I can explain the key parts:

"dev" script uses nodemon to watch for changes
--exec node tells nodemon to run node command
--inspect enables debugging

But when nodemon restarts, it takes 2-3 seconds and consumes lots of resources.

How to Solve It

I tried to remove nodemon dependency first:

npm uninstall nodemon

But then I got this error:

$ npm run dev

> [email protected] dev
> nodemon --exec node --inspect src/index.js

sh: nodemon: command not found

So I needed a different approach. I tried using native Node.js watch features:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "node --watch --inspect src/index.js",
    "start": "node src/index.js
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.18.2
  }
}

Now test again:

$ npm run dev

> [email protected] dev
> node --watch --inspect src/index.js
Debugger attached.
Server running on port 3000

You can see that I succeeded to run the server with native watch features.

Advanced Configuration

I wanted to watch specific directories, not just everything:

{
  "name": "my-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "node --watch src --watch tests --inspect src/index.js",
    "start": "node src/index.js
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.18.2
  }
}

This watches only the src and tests directories, which is more efficient.

The Reason

I think the key reason for the performance improvement is:

Native Node.js watch is built into the runtime, no extra process
Better integration with the Node.js event loop
Less overhead from monitoring file systems
No need for additional dependencies

Summary

In this post, I showed how to replace nodemon with native Node.js watch features. The key point is that you can reduce dependencies and improve performance while maintaining basic file watching functionality.

Final Words + More Resources

My intention with this article was to help others share my knowledge and experience. If you want to contact me, you can contact by email: Email me

Here are also the most important links from this article along with some further resources that will help you in this scope:

👨‍💻 Node.js CLI documentation

Oh, and if you found these resources useful, don’t forget to support me by starring the repo on GitHub!