### Node.js

If you’d like to use Node.js’ CommonJS to `require` CoffeeScript files, e.g. `require './app.coffee'`, you must first “register” CoffeeScript as an extension:

```coffee
require 'coffeescript/register'

App = require './app' # The .coffee extension is optional
```

If you want to use the compiler’s API, for example to make an app that compiles strings of CoffeeScript on the fly, you can `require` the full module:

```coffee
CoffeeScript = require 'coffeescript'

eval CoffeeScript.compile 'console.log "Mmmmm, I could really go for some #{Math.pi}"'
```

The `compile` method has the signature `compile(code, options)` where `code` is a string of CoffeeScript code, and the optional `options` is an object with some or all of the following properties:

* `options.sourceMap`, boolean: if true, a source map will be generated; and instead of returning a string, `compile` will return an object of the form `{js, v3SourceMap, sourceMap}`.
* `options.inlineMap`, boolean: if true, output the source map as a base64-encoded string in a comment at the bottom.
* `options.filename`, string: the filename to use for the source map. It can include a path (relative or absolute).
* `options.bare`, boolean: if true, output without the [top-level function safety wrapper](#lexical-scope).
* `options.header`, boolean: if true, output the `Generated by CoffeeScript` header.
* `options.transpile`, **object**: if set, this must be an object with the [options to pass to Babel](http://babeljs.io/docs/usage/api/#options). See [Transpilation](#transpilation).
* `options.ast`, boolean: if true, return an abstract syntax tree of the input CoffeeScript source code.