Node.js v20 to v22

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This article covers a part of the migration from Node.js v20 to v22. The userland migrations team is working on more codemods to help you with the migration.

This page provides a list of codemods to help you migrate your code from Node.js v20 to v22.

import-assertions-to-attributes

During the process of TC39 standardization, the import assert feature was introduced to allow importing JSON modules, but during the transition to stage 4, the assert keyword was replaced with the with attribute on the import statement.

So in node.js v22, the import assert feature was removed and the with attribute is required instead.

Also note that the with keyword was introduced in node.js v18.20 but it was not mandatory until v22.

The source code for this codemod can be found in the import-assertions-to-attributes directory.

You can find this codemod in the Codemod Registry.

npx codemod run @nodejs/import-assertions-to-attributes

Example:

- import data from './data.json' assert { type: 'json' };
+ import data from './data.json' with { type: 'json' };

crypto-createcipheriv-migration

Migrates deprecated crypto.createCipher() / crypto.createDecipher() usage to the supported crypto.createCipheriv() / crypto.createDecipheriv() APIs with explicit key derivation and IV handling.

Node.js removed crypto.createCipher() and crypto.createDecipher() in v22.0.0 (DEP0106). The legacy helpers derived keys with MD5 and no salt, and silently reused static IVs. This codemod replaces those calls with the modern, explicit APIs and scaffolds secure key derivation and IV management.

The source code for this codemod can be found in the crypto-createcipheriv-migration directory.

You can find this codemod in the Codemod Registry.

npx codemod run @nodejs/crypto-createcipheriv-migration

What it does

• Replaces invocations of createCipher() / createDecipher() with createCipheriv() / createDecipheriv().
• Inserts scaffolding that derives keys with crypto.scryptSync() and generates random salts and IVs.
• Reminds developers to persist salt + IV for decryption and to adjust key/IV lengths per algorithm.
• Updates destructured imports to include the new helpers (createCipheriv, createDecipheriv, randomBytes, scryptSync).

Example

- const cipher = crypto.createCipher(algorithm, password);
+ const cipher = (() => {
+   const __dep0106Salt = crypto.randomBytes(16);
+   const __dep0106Key = crypto.scryptSync(password, __dep0106Salt, 32);
+   const __dep0106Iv = crypto.randomBytes(16);
+   // DEP0106: Persist __dep0106Salt and __dep0106Iv alongside the ciphertext so it can be decrypted later.
+   return crypto.createCipheriv(algorithm, __dep0106Key, __dep0106Iv);
+ })();

Important notes

• The codemod cannot guarantee algorithm-specific key/IV sizes. Review the generated scryptSync length and IV length defaults and adjust as needed.
• Decryption snippets include placeholders (Buffer.alloc(16)) that must be replaced with the salt and IV stored during encryption.
• If your project already wraps key derivation logic, you may prefer to adapt the generated scaffolding to call existing helpers.
• The generated code is not backward-compatible and will be unable to decrypt data that was encrypted using createCipher().
• The use of scrypt is one possible choice for deriving a key from a password, but you may wish to use Argon2id or PBKDF2 instead.