Information Density: Babel – Signal Evidence & AI Readability

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[H1] Babel is a JavaScript compiler.
Use next generation JavaScript, today.Babel 8.0.0 released! Go check our blog post for more details!
[H3] Put in next-gen JavaScript
[H3] Get browser-compatible JavaScript out
Learn more about Babel with our getting started guide or check out some videos on the people and concepts behind it.
[H3] Current Sponsors
We're a small group of volunteers that spend their free time maintaining this project, funded by the community. If Babel has benefited you in your work, becoming a contributor or sponsoring might just be a great way to give back!
[H3] Base Support
are currently pledging or have donated an average of >$2000/month in the last year
[IMG: Sponsored by Sovereign Tech Agency]
[IMG: Sponsored by Sovereign Tech Fund]
[IMG: Sponsored by Igalia]
[H3] Gold
are currently pledging or have donated an average of $1000-$2000/month in the last year
[IMG: Sponsored by Airbnb]
[IMG: Sponsored by Coinbase]
[IMG: Sponsored by American Express]
[H3] Silver
are currently pledging or have donated an average of $500-$1000/month in the last year
[IMG: Sponsored by Codecademy]
[IMG: Sponsored by Turtlebet - Nettikasinot]
[IMG: Sponsored by Fun88]
[IMG: Sponsored by BairesDev]
[IMG: Sponsored by ACV Auctions]
[IMG: Sponsored by Route Planner]

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[H2] Conferences
[H4] @babel/how-to
by Nicolò Ribaudo at HolyJS (2019)
[H4] I Can Babel Macros (and So Can You!)
by Shawn Wang at JSConf Hawaii (2019)
[H4] Open Source: Charity or Business
by Henry Zhu at JSNation (2019)
[H4] Maintainers Anonymous
by Henry Zhu at JSHeroes (2019)
[H4] Maintainer's Virtue
by Henry Zhu at All Things Open (2018)
[H4] 10KB or Bust: The Delicate Power of Webpack and Babel
by Brian Holt at jsDay (2018)
[H4] Through the Open Source Looking Glass
by Henry Zhu at React Rally (2018)
[H4] In Pursuit of Open Source
by Henry Zhu at Zeit Day (2018)
[H4] Optimizing Your Code with Babel
by Pranay Prakash and Thomas Fischer at Zeit Day (2018)
[H4] Behind the scenes of Fable: Babel
by Sven Sauleau at Fable Conf (2017)
[H4] So How Does Babel Even Work?
by Henry Zhu at React Rally (2017)
[H4] Writing custom Babel and ESLint plugins with ASTs
by Kent C. Dodds at Open West (2017)
[H4] Maintaining an OSS Project (Babel)
by Henry Zhu at JSConf EU (2017)
[H4] How to Build a Compiler
by James Kyle at EmberConf (2016)
[H4] Tuning Babel to Your Runtimes
by Christophe Porteneuve at dotJS (2016)
[H4] Closing Keynote, Babel 6.0
by Sebastian McKenzie at EmberCamp London (2015)
[H4] Improving Your Workflow With Code Transformation
by Sebastian McKenzie at React Europe (2015)
[H4] JavaScript Tooling in the Future
by James Kyle at Forward 3 (2015)
[H4] Consolidation of Tools
by Sebastian McKenzie at BrazilJS (2015)
[H4] JavaScript Transformation
by Sebastian McKenzie at JSConf US (2015)
[H2] Meetups
[H4] Demystifying Babel
by Sven Sauleau at React Vienna (2018)
[H4] Using Babel in a Futuristic Working Environment
by Kurtis Rainbolt-Greene at js.la (2017)
[H4] Babel Sucks
by James Kyle at Modern Web UI (2016)
[H4] Babel Plugins - Writing Code That Writes Code
by Sebastiaan Deckers at SingaporeJS (2016)
[H4] Using Babel in a Modern Working Environment
by Kurtis Rainbolt-Greene at js.la (2016)
[H4] Babel
by Sebastian McKenzie at React London Meetup (2015)
[H4] Babel - Beyond the Basics
by Sebastian McKenzie at MelbJS (2015)
[H2] ASTs
[H4] Master the art of the AST (and take control of your JS)
by Yonatan Mevorach at Full Stack Fest (2017)
[H4] As Simple as an AST
by Pavithra Kodmad at JSHeroes (2017)
[H4] Code Transformation and Linting with ASTs Workshop
by Kent C. Dodds at PayPal (practice run with coworkers) (2017)
[H4] Harnessing The Power of Abstract Syntax Trees
by Jamund Ferguson at UtahJS (2015)

Today we are releasing Babel 8. It's been 8 years since we released Babel 7. And that's not without reason.
Over these past 8 years, the JavaScript ecosystem has changed significantly. In addition to Babel, SWC and Oxc have emerged as alternative JavaScript compilers, and the JavaScript language itself has evolved with new features and proposals (many of which were prototyped and tested in Babel before being standardized!).
You might imagine that Babel became less relevant because of that. But reality begs to differ. Babel has grown from 1.7 million weekly downloads in 2018, to 651 million weekly downloads this week (Jun 2026). Babel has doubled its weekly download counts in the last year.
This usage comes with a huge responsibility to our users. Babel is used in so many build pipelines across the world that even minor breaking changes can cause hundreds of thousands of developers to be blocked from shipping their code. That's why we've not done a major release with breaking changes in 8 years, and why we are taking a very careful approach to Babel 8.Babel 7.29.0 is out!
This is the last minor release of Babel 7, as we are getting ready to release Babel 8.0.0. Babel 8.0.0-rc is also out today: go try it out!
This release include support for defining transpilation targets in @babel/standalone through a data-target attribute on <script> elements. It also adds support for the @babel/core async API to @babel/standalone.
Both of these changes are meant to ease the migration from Babel 7 to Babel 8.
You can read the whole changelog on GitHub. If you are already using Babel 8 beta, all the new 7.28.0 features are included in v8.0.0-rc.1.Babel 7.28.0 is out!
This release includes support for babel.config.ts and babel.config.mts, the ES2026 Explicit Resource Management feature, the discard binding proposal, and the sourceType: "commonjs" option.
You can read the whole changelog on GitHub. If you are already using Babel 8 beta, all the new 7.28.0 features are included in v8.0.0-beta.1.After almost two years since the first Babel 8 alpha release (8.0.0-alpha.0), we are finally ready.
All the breaking changes we were planning to include in Babel 8 are done, and we have removed a lot of the technical debt we've accumulated over the years and were unable to remove during Babel 7's lifetime.
We now need to test it in real projects to make sure we got everything right. We have been transpiling our own code using Babel 8 since early alpha versions, but one prerelease user is not enough. ?Babel 7.27.0 is out!
This release doesn't include any significant new feature, but it better aligns Babel's behavior with standard JavaScript and other tools.
The code printer will now also print the correct import attributes syntax by default, rather than expecting its users to explicitly enable an option for it.
We also tweaked the behavior of @babel/preset-typescript's rewriteImportExtensions option, to fix some differences when compared to TypeScript's --rewriteRelativeImportExtensions.
Lastly, we updated our estree compatibility plugin in @babel/parser to generate AccessorProperty nodes for accessor foo = "val" class properties, introduced by the decorators stage 3 proposal. Note that, for legacy compatibility reasons, @babel/parser only generates an ESTree-compatible AST for class features when the classFeatures option of the estree plugin is enabled.
There are multiple changes that may benefit plugin authors: you can read the whole changelog on GitHub.Babel 7.26.0 was just released!
It enables by default support of two ECMAScript proposals that become standard in the last TC39 meeting, import attributes and inline regular expression modifiers, as well as parsing of Flow enums.
Babel now also allows plugins to provide asynchronous pre/post hooks, and has an [experimental mode](TODO: Link) to preserve tokens' positions when generating the transformed output.
You can read the whole changelog on GitHub.Babel 7.25.0 is out!
@babel/preset-env now supports the duplicated named capturing groups proposal for Regular Expressions by default, as well as a bugfix for class fields when targeting Safari. This version also improves support for compiling JSON module imports to CommonJS, and adds support for config files to @babel/node's --eval mode.
You can read the whole changelog on GitHub.Babel 7.24.0 is out!
We updated our Decorators implementation to match the latest version of the proposal, and we improved the way we transform class private fields and methods. We also added support for importing JSON modules in browsers and Node.js, an older Stage 3 proposal depending on Import Attributes.
You can read the whole changelog on GitHub.
On October 10th, 2023, I stumbled upon an arbitrary code execution vulnerability in Babel, which was subsequently assigned the identifier CVE-2023-45133. In this post, I’ll walk you through the journey of discovering and exploiting this intriguing flaw.We just released Babel 7.23.0! ?
It includes transform support for the Decorator Metadata, Source Phase Import, Deferred Import Evaluation, and Optional Chaining Assignment proposals. We also updated our parser to support the new TypeScript 5.2 version, and added a transform option to let you use the .ts extension within TypeScript imports.
In addition to releasing version 7.23.0, we also recently published the first Babel 8 alpha release!
You can read the whole changelog on GitHub.

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[H2] Core Maintainers
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Babelbabelbabeljs
[IMG: {{name}}]
Brian Ngexistentialismexistentialism
[IMG: {{name}}]
Henry Zhuhzooleft_pad
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Huáng JùnliàngJLHwungJLHwung
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Logan Smythloganfsmythloganfsmyth
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Nicolò Ribaudonicolo-ribaudoNicoloRibaudo
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Sven Sauleauxtucsvensauleau
[H2] Team Members
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Andrew Levinedrewmldrewml
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Artem Yavorskyyavorskyyavorsky_
[IMG: {{name}}]
Boopathi Rajaaboopathiheisenbugger
[IMG: {{name}}]
Buu Nguyenbuunguyenbuunguyen
[IMG: {{name}}]
Daniel TschinderdanezTschinderDaniel
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Denis Pushkarevzloirockzloirock
[IMG: {{name}}]
Jessica FrancoJessidhiajessidhia
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Justin Ridgewelljridgewell
[IMG: {{name}}]
Kai Cataldokaicataldokai_cataldo
[IMG: {{name}}]
Mateusz BurzyńskiAndaristAndaristRake
[IMG: {{name}}]
Samuel ReedSTRMLSTRML_
[IMG: {{name}}]
Sergey Rubanovchicoxyzzychicoxyzzy
[IMG: {{name}}]
Vignesh Shanmugamvigneshshanmugam_vigneshh
[IMG: {{name}}]
Andres Suarezzertoshzertosh
[IMG: eslint]
[IMG: {{name}}]
James HenryJamesHenryMrJamesHenry
[IMG: eslint]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Teddy Katznot-an-aardvark
[IMG: eslint]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Toru Nagashimamysticateamysticatea
[IMG: eslint]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Ben Newmanbenjamnbenjamn
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Daniel Ehrenberglittledanlittledan
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: v8]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Diego Ferreiro Valdiervodiervo
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Gabe Isenberggisenbergthe_gisenberg
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Jordan Harbandljharbljharb
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Kent C. Doddskentcdoddskentcdodds
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Kevin Gibbonsbakkotbakkoting
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Leo Balterleobalterleobalter
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Mathias Bynensmathiasbynensmathias
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: v8]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Rick Waldronrwaldronrwaldron
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Sathya Gunasekarangsathya_gsathya
[IMG: tc39]
[IMG: v8]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Franziska Hinkelmannfhinkelfhinkel
[IMG: v8]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Benedikt Meurerbmeurerbmeurer
[IMG: v8]
[IMG: {{name}}]
Brian Vaughnbvaughnbrian_d_vaughn?
[IMG: {{name}}]
Daniel Lo NigroDaniel15Daniel15?
[IMG: {{name}}]
Keith CirkelkeithamusKeithamus
[IMG: {{name}}]
Lucas Azzolaazzlucasazzola
[IMG: {{name}}]
Angus Crollangus-cangustweets
[IMG: {{name}}]
Jordan Scalesjdanjdan
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Suchipisuchipisuchipi
[H2] Summer of Code
[IMG: {{name}}]
Peeyush KushwahapeeypeeyFTW
[IMG: {{name}}]
Karl ChengQantas94Heavyqantas94heavy
[IMG: {{name}}]
Kara de la MarckMarckKKaraMarck
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Emma DeaconEmmaDeaconEmmaMDeacon
[IMG: {{name}}]
Sujin Leesujinleemesujinleeme
[IMG: {{name}}]
Gyujin ChogyujinchoMarinaGJCho
[H2] NonHuman Members
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Babel Botbabel-botbabeljs
[H2] Alumni
[IMG: {{name}}]
Aaron Angaaronang_aaronang
[IMG: {{name}}]
Amjad Masadamasadamasad
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Brian Donovaneventualbuddhaeventualbuddha
[IMG: {{name}}]
Christopher Monsantomonsantocmmonsanto
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Dan Abramovgaearondan_abramov
[IMG: {{name}}]
Dan HarperdanharperDanHarper7
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Ingvar StepanyanRReverserRReverser
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James Kylejamiebuildsthejameskyle
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Jesse McCarthyjmmmccjm
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Juriy Zaytsevkangaxkangax
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Moti Zilbermanmotiz88motiz88
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Sebastian McKenziesebmcksebmck
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Stefan Pennerstefanpennerstefanpenner