Skip to main content

Deno

The Deno module gives a Deno workspace one shared way to test, lint, format, and type-check. It scans the workspace for deno.json/deno.jsonc files, treats each as a Deno project, reads the workspace array to fan out across members, and exposes workspace-level functions that run across all of them — a good fit for monorepos and repos where every project should share one Deno version and the same CI checks.

Rather than wrapping the deno CLI, it models a Deno project as a typed object graph and maps Deno's toolchain onto Dagger's first-class verbs, so the same checks run locally, in CI, and in Dagger Cloud.

Official module: dagger/deno

Add it to your workspace​

dagger install github.com/dagger/deno

Run the checks​

dagger check                       # run every check in the workspace
dagger check deno:test-all         # deno test across every project
dagger check deno:lint-all         # deno lint across every project
dagger check deno:type-check-all   # deno check across every project
dagger check deno:format-check-all # deno fmt --check across every project

The -all checks discover every deno.json/deno.jsonc in the workspace, treat each as a Deno project, and run against all of them. Deno permissions come from each project's deno.json (under test.permissions or permissions.default), not from flags.

To run a check against a single project, call it directly:

dagger call deno project --path . test
dagger call deno project --path apps/api type-check

Format the source​

format-check only reports whether files are formatted; format rewrites them. Because formatting mutates the workspace, format returns a changeset: Dagger prints the diff and asks before writing. Add -y to apply it without prompting:

dagger call deno project --path . format      # preview the diff
dagger -y call deno project --path . format   # apply it

Compile a binary​

compile builds a standalone executable from an entrypoint and returns it as a file to export:

dagger call deno project --path . \
  compile --entrypoint main.ts --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu \
  export --path ./bin/app

Configure it​

List the current settings with dagger settings deno, then change one with dagger settings deno <key> <value>. They live in dagger.toml under [modules.deno.settings]:

  • version (default 2.9.3): the Deno version used to build the check containers. Pin this so every project is tested, linted, and formatted against the same Deno release.
  • base: the base container image Deno runs in (for example docker.io/denoland/deno:debian). Override it to control the OS or runtime the toolchain runs on.

base and version are mutually exclusive: when base is set it already pins a Deno release, so version is ignored.

# Pin the Deno version for the whole workspace
dagger settings deno version 2.9.3
[modules.deno.settings]
version = "2.9.3"
base = "docker.io/denoland/deno:debian"

Working with other modules​

Reach for this module whenever the repo contains one or more Deno projects, especially when they should share the same Deno version and CI checks. It composes with the rest of your workspace — the base and install functions expose a Deno-ready container you can hand to other modules, and version prints the configured toolchain version.