What is stream.pipeline in Node.js?

Direct answer

stream.pipeline (and stream/promises.pipeline) connects streams with proper error forwarding, cleanup, and backpressure — prefer it over manual .pipe() chains in production code.

pipeline() solves three pipe pitfalls — unhandled errors, missing destroy on failure, and broken backpressure across multiple transforms.

Callback form — pipeline(a, b, c, (err) => { ... }) from node:stream.
Promise form — await pipeline(a, b, c) from node:stream/promises.
AbortSignal — optional signal destroys pipeline on timeout/cancel.
Return value — promise resolves with { readable, writable } refs for last streams.

pipeline.mjs

import fs from "node:fs";
import { pipeline } from "node:stream/promises";
import { createGzip } from "node:zlib";

try {
  await pipeline(
    fs.createReadStream("export.ndjson"),
    createGzip(),
    fs.createWriteStream("export.ndjson.gz")
  );
  console.log("Pipeline finished");
} catch (err) {
  console.error("Pipeline failed:", err.message);
}