feat(node): add -slim image variants without preinstalled SDKs by vladfrangu · Pull Request #304 · apify/apify-actor-docker

vladfrangu · 2026-08-04T12:48:40Z

What

Every node image release now also builds and pushes a -slim variant of each tag, alongside the unchanged regular images:

apify/actor-node:24            →  apify/actor-node:24-slim
apify/actor-node:latest        →  apify/actor-node:latest-slim
apify/actor-node-playwright-chrome:24-1.60.0  →  apify/actor-node-playwright-chrome:24-1.60.0-slim
apify/actor-node:24-beta       →  apify/actor-node:24-beta-slim

Slim images are built 1:1 from the same Dockerfiles with a new SLIM=1 build arg. Each image dir gains a package.slim.json — the same manifest minus apify, crawlee and typescript (and the crawlee overrides); the slim build installs from it instead of package.json. Each image keeps only the browser library it is built around:

Image	`-slim` still preinstalls
`node`	(nothing)
`node-playwright`	`playwright`
`node-playwright-chrome`	`playwright-chromium`
`node-playwright-firefox`	`playwright-firefox`
`node-playwright-webkit`	`playwright-webkit`
`node-playwright-camoufox`	`camoufox-js`, `playwright`, `impit`
`node-puppeteer-chrome`	`puppeteer`

How

<image>/package.slim.json (all 7): slim manifest, reviewed as a plain file — no JSON munging at build time.
Dockerfiles (all 7): both manifests are copied in; ARG SLIM=0 selects one:
```
RUN if [ "$SLIM" = "1" ]; then mv package.slim.json package.json; else rm package.slim.json; fi
```
Regular builds are unchanged in behavior, and neither variant ships the extra file.
set-dependency-versions.js: now substitutes release versions in both package.json and package.slim.json, so the manifests can't drift on release.
prepare-node-image-tags.js: optional TAG_SUFFIX env appended to every generated tag.
Release workflows (node / playwright / puppeteer): each build job gains mirrored steps — Prepare slim image tags (TAG_SUFFIX: "-slim"), Build and tag slim image for testing (SLIM=1), Test slim image, and Build and push slim OCI image. Slim builds use a -slim GHA cache scope and fall back to the regular scope for the shared layer prefix.
Smoke tests (main.js + helpers): no longer depend on apify/crawlee (which -slim doesn't ship) — apify is imported optionally and browsers are driven with raw playwright/puppeteer, so one test suite serves both variants.

Why

Preinstalled SDK versions go stale immediately and rarely match what an Actor's own package.json pins — most builds install their own copies anyway, on top of pulling image layers containing the unused preinstalled ones. The -slim variants give Actors exactly the dependency versions they declare, with much smaller pulls, without breaking anyone on the existing tags.

Verification

Local builds of actor-node:24 from this branch:

Variant	Deps in image	Size
regular	`apify`, `crawlee`, `typescript` (+overrides)	497 MB
`SLIM=1`	(none)	164 MB

Both variants' self-tests pass (... test PASSED), and package.slim.json is confirmed absent from both final images. set-dependency-versions.js verified to substitute versions in both manifests (checked with node-puppeteer-chrome + PUPPETEER_VERSION). Tag generation unit-checked: latest/20 → latest-slim/20-slim; beta + framework 1.60.0 → beta-slim, 20-1.60.0-beta-slim, 20-beta-slim. All three workflow files parse as valid YAML. The slim browser-image test content matches what already passed CI in the empty-cached/empty-uncached experimental builds.

JuanGalilea · 2026-08-10T09:55:05Z

broader version of #289

could we get a sneaky review @B4nan 🙏 😅

Image size gains are too good to pass up! 👀
We got ~200mb final image size decrease with these changes (which is like ~40% of the total size)

metalwarrior665 · 2026-08-10T14:13:17Z

So how can we release this without crashing the world (since the template Dockerfile itself crashes)? Will it be forever opt-in? We introduce it from Node:26 or later?

vladfrangu · 2026-08-10T14:15:14Z

People should NOT be depending on pre-installed modules. I personally think this breaking change is fine, but it's going to be separate so we can revert it quickly if fires light up, and I can then turn this into an opt-in slim build

B4nan · 2026-08-10T14:18:54Z

We could introduce new image tags (e.g. add v2 or similar) and let the old ones work the same (we'd stop maintaining those).

I also feel like this should be fine and people don't really depend on having stuff preinstalled, but having a different set of image tags would surely be safer.

I would rather not bind this to node versions, it'd be pretty confusing.

metalwarrior665 · 2026-08-10T16:04:52Z

I personally think this breaking change is fine

Actor templates that run RUN npm ls @crawlee/core apify puppeteer playwright as a preinstall sanity check will fail on these images

These things don't go together. Every template user from past X years would crash on rebuild, it cannot be much more breaking than that. Agree that relying on preinstalled packages alone would be okish to break.

metalwarrior665 · 2026-08-10T16:28:17Z

GPT offers some hacks to fake the npm command but that might open another can of worms.

vladfrangu · 2026-08-10T19:12:02Z

I would rather make a tagged slim image than a hacky npm wrapper 😅

B4nan · 2026-08-11T09:05:57Z

Let's just introduce new tags as I mentioned above, no need for some weird hacks.

Actor templates that run RUN npm ls @crawlee/core apify puppeteer playwright as a preinstall sanity check will fail on these images

This shouldn't fail, running npm ls on a package that is missing doesn't fail, it just doesn't print the package that is not installed.

JuanGalilea · 2026-08-18T14:25:30Z

sooo, whats the deal?

Is there something we can help you guys with?

metalwarrior665 · 2026-08-18T17:31:35Z

This shouldn't fail, running npm ls on a package that is missing doesn't fail, it just doesn't print the package that is not installed.

It does fail

npm ls nonexistent-package
echo $? (prints 1)

B4nan · 2026-08-18T17:43:36Z

It only fails if all packages are missing. We already check for both playwright and puppeteer this way, and we almost never have both around.

Every node image release now also builds and pushes a -slim variant of each tag (e.g. apify/actor-node:24-slim, apify/actor-node-playwright-chrome:24-1.60.0-slim). Each image dir gains a package.slim.json — the same manifest minus apify, crawlee and typescript (and the crawlee overrides), keeping only the browser library the image is built around. Slim images are built from the same Dockerfiles with SLIM=1, which installs from package.slim.json instead of package.json; regular tags are unchanged. set-dependency-versions.js keeps both manifests' versions in sync during releases. Actors on -slim get exactly the dependency versions in their own package.json instead of whatever the image preinstalled, at the cost of installing them at build time. The default main.js smoke tests no longer depend on apify or crawlee (which -slim images don't ship): apify is imported optionally, and the browsers are driven with raw playwright/puppeteer instead of crawlee's launchers, so one test suite serves both variants.

The optional require('apify') caught every error, so a regular image with a corrupted apify install would silently degrade to the slim test path and pass. Only tolerate apify itself being absent (the -slim case); rethrow anything else. When apify is present, also require crawlee, so the regular images verify both preinstalled SDKs again.

… test chrome_test.js only launched full Chrome (channel: 'chrome'), so the bundled Chromium the image installs into PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH - and the APIFY_DEFAULT_BROWSER_PATH symlink pointing at it - were never exercised. Launch it both ways before the Chrome tests.

- Run `execSync('ps')` in every image smoke test: official Node builds have occasionally shipped without ps, which crawlee needs at runtime to measure memory. The old getMemoryInfo() call guarded this; restore it without a crawlee dependency so it also covers the -slim images. - Fix the copy-pasted SLIM comment in node/Dockerfile (the base image has no browser library). - Add the missing blank line between the regular and slim push steps in the release workflows.

Rethrow non-ENOENT errors when reading package manifests so a malformed file fails loudly, drop the unused testPageLoading export in the chrome image test, and correct the node-playwright manifest descriptions.

Adds the -slim tag family to the README, makes update-package-json.mjs update package.slim.json alongside package.json, and adds a SLIM=1 flag to the node Makefile targets (passed as a build arg, with the slim manifest restored after the build).

B4nan

added some fixes, please review those before merging

B4nan · 2026-08-20T15:25:14Z

+} else {
+    run().catch((error) => {
+        console.error(error);
+        process.exitCode = 1;


why this over process.exit(1)?

B4nan · 2026-08-20T15:36:30Z

Should we revive the non-root user (#197) for the slim images? The time is now, I don't think we'll get such an opportunity anytime soon.

github-actions Bot assigned vladfrangu Aug 4, 2026

github-actions Bot added this to the 146th sprint - Tooling team milestone Aug 4, 2026

github-actions Bot added t-tooling Issues with this label are in the ownership of the tooling team. tested Temporary label used only programatically for some analytics. labels Aug 4, 2026

vladfrangu added the adhoc Ad-hoc unplanned task added during the sprint. label Aug 4, 2026

JuanGalilea mentioned this pull request Aug 10, 2026

fix(node-images): move typescript to devDependencies #289

Closed

vladfrangu force-pushed the feat/no-preinstalled-deps branch from 0d52600 to d3003b6 Compare August 18, 2026 19:24

vladfrangu changed the title ~~feat(node)!: stop preinstalling apify, crawlee and typescript~~ feat(node): add -slim image variants without preinstalled SDKs Aug 18, 2026

vladfrangu force-pushed the feat/no-preinstalled-deps branch 2 times, most recently from d955df7 to 1637bd8 Compare August 19, 2026 09:34

vladfrangu requested a review from B4nan August 20, 2026 12:04

vladfrangu force-pushed the feat/no-preinstalled-deps branch from 1637bd8 to 2777e63 Compare August 20, 2026 12:22

vladfrangu and others added 5 commits August 20, 2026 15:38

chore: address review findings

a679cfe

Rethrow non-ENOENT errors when reading package manifests so a malformed file fails loudly, drop the unused testPageLoading export in the chrome image test, and correct the node-playwright manifest descriptions.

B4nan approved these changes Aug 20, 2026

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