The N|Solid product suite
N|Solid gives you production-grade observability and diagnostics for Node.js applications. This page introduces each part of the suite and links to the documentation for it.
Components at a glance
| Component | What it does | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| N|Solid Runtime | A drop-in replacement for Node.js with a built-in, low-overhead monitoring agent. | The N|Solid Runtime |
| N|Solid Console | The web application and server that collect data from your runtimes and let you monitor and diagnose them. Available as N|Solid SaaS or self-hosted. | The N|Solid Console |
| N|Solid IDE extension | Brings N|Solid data and AI workflows into Visual Studio Code and compatible editors. | Getting started |
| NodeSource Certified Modules (NCM) | Scores npm packages for security, license, and quality risk. | NCM overview |
| AI and MCP | N|Solid Copilot in the Console, plus MCP servers that connect AI assistants to your N|Solid data. | Copilot |
N|Solid Runtime
The N|Solid Runtime is NodeSource's open source build of Node.js. It adds observability features and the N|Solid Agent, a native thread that collects diagnostic data and exports it with minimal impact on your application. The runtime can send data to the N|Solid Console, to an OpenTelemetry endpoint, or to a StatsD endpoint.
The engineers who build the N|Solid Runtime are also Node.js core contributors. NodeSource tracks the active Node.js LTS lines and regularly ships N|Solid releases based on the latest upstream security and patch releases. See Supported Node.js versions for the current lines.
Key features:
- Observability features built into the Node.js runtime.
- A native agent thread that collects and exports diagnostic data with minimal overhead.
- Export to the N|Solid Console, OpenTelemetry, or StatsD. You can also use the built-in JavaScript API.
- Detailed Node.js-specific metrics, configured through environment variables,
package.json, or code. - Open source: N|Solid on GitHub.
N|Solid Console
The N|Solid Console is where you manage and investigate your N|Solid Runtime processes. It gives you a high-level view to spot outliers across your infrastructure, then lets you drill into a single process to diagnose it in production.
You can use the Console in two ways:
- N|Solid SaaS: NodeSource hosts and operates the Console for you. Get your connection token from NodeSource Accounts and start sending data.
- Self-hosted N|Solid Console: you run the Console in your own infrastructure. NodeSource can help enterprise customers install and operate it. See Run modes.
Key features:
- Infrastructure overview: the Scatterplot plots every process so you can find outliers.
- Process dashboards: dashboards for each process, with metrics and on-demand diagnostics.
- CPU profiling: capture CPU profiles with one click to optimize performance.
- Heap snapshots and profiles: capture heap snapshots and heap samples to find memory leaks.
- Distributed tracing: turn tracing on or off at runtime and browse OpenTelemetry spans.
- Security monitoring: find vulnerabilities in the packages your processes load, and generate an SBOM.
- Alerts and events: get notified about blocked event loops, CPU spikes, and more through email and other integrations.
N|Solid IDE extension
The N|Solid IDE extension (N|Solid in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace, Open VSX, and the Windsurf Marketplace) works in VS Code and compatible editors such as Cursor, Windsurf, and Antigravity. It shows runtime telemetry, events, assets, and NCM package reports inside your editor. It can also install agent skills for AI-assisted diagnostics. See Getting started.
NodeSource Certified Modules (NCM)
NCM scores npm packages for security vulnerabilities, license concerns, and code quality. Use it from the command line, in the N|Solid Console, or in the IDE extension. See the NCM overview and Using NCM with N|Solid.
AI and MCP
- N|Solid Copilot: an AI assistant in the Console that answers questions about your processes and generates AI reports from CPU profiles. See Copilot.
- N|Solid plugin for AI coding agents: adds N|Solid skills and MCP servers to Claude Code, Codex CLI, OpenCode, Antigravity CLI, and Pi Agent. See N|Solid plugin for AI coding agents.
- N|Solid Console MCP server: connects your own AI assistant or IDE to Console data through the Model Context Protocol. See N|Solid Console MCP integration.
- GitHub MCP integration: lets the Copilot open pull requests with suggested fixes. See MCP integrations.
Get started
You don't need to change or instrument your code. Run your application with the N|Solid Runtime instead of Node.js, and configure where it sends data. Continue to the local installation quickstart, or try N|Solid without installing it by using the local demo.
