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Node.js quick start

Last updated: Oct-31-2023

This quick start lets you get an end-to-end implementation up and running using the Node.js SDK in 5 minutes or less.

On this page:

1. Set up and configure the SDK

Install the SDK

In a terminal in your Node.js environment, run:

Set your API environment variable

In a terminal, set your CLOUDINARY_URL environment variable.

Replace CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://API_KEY:API_SECRET@CLOUD_NAME with the API environment variable copied from your product environment credentials:

  • On Mac or Linux:

  • On Windows:

Important
  • When writing your own applications, follow your organization's policy on storing secrets and don't expose your API secret.
  • If you use a method that involves writing your environment variable to a file (e.g. dotenv), the file should be excluded from your version control system, so as not to expose it publicly.

Configure Cloudinary

Create a new file called index.js and copy and paste the following into this file:

index.js

2. Upload an image

Copy and paste this into index.js:

index.js (continued)

3. Get and use details of the image

Copy and paste this into index.js:

index.js (continued)

4. Transform the image

Copy and paste this into index.js:

index.js (continued)

5. Run your code

Copy and paste this into index.js to call the functions you just created:

index.js (continued)

Save your changes then run the script from the terminal:

You can see the image that has been uploaded to your Cloudinary storage by copying the secure_url that is returned in the upload response and pasting it in a browser.

Happy people image

You can use the returned image tag to display the image on your website. For now, copy and paste the URL to see the transformed image in the browser:

Transformed image of faces

View the completed code

You can see the whole Node.js script in GitHub, and also in the code explorer below.

Code explorer: Full Node.js example

The full Node.js script is shown in the repl below (click Show files > index.js).

To run it:

  1. Click the Run button to bring up the console. In the console, you'll see errors because you need to set your API environment variable. To set your API environment variable, enter the following at the prompt (replace CLOUDINARY_URL=cloudinary://API_KEY:API_SECRET@CLOUD_NAME with the API environment variable copied from your account credentials):

  2. Run the script:

This code is also available in GitHub.

Next steps

  • Learn more about the Node.js SDK by visiting the other pages in this SDK guide.
  • Get comprehensive details about Cloudinary features and capabilities:

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