Licia: a zero-dependency JavaScript utility collection of over 400 micro modules

What Licia solves, and who actually needs it

The README frames the project against underscore and mout, which sort their functions into categories such as array, string and function. Licia takes the opposite position: it describes itself as "a deadly simple collection of over 400 micro modules dealing problems in different aspects", with no category hierarchy imposed on the consumer. You install one package and get uuid, dateFormat, cookie helpers, a Promise polyfill, an event emitter, Ajax plus a Promise-based fetch, underscore-style functions such as shuffle and unique, and mkdir, which the README compares to the mkdirp module.

The intended audience is a JavaScript developer who would otherwise assemble six or seven small packages. The benefit the README states is straightforward: installing one library brings you a large set of utilities. The cost is equally straightforward and the README does not dwell on it. You are adding a dependency whose surface area is far larger than any single utility you need, and the package's own postinstall script runs during installation, which is a decision some teams will not accept in a locked-down registry.

How the module layout and build pipeline work

The import style is per-module, not a single barrel export. The README's example is `require('licia/uuid')`, and the repository layout supports that: there is a top-level src directory, a lib directory, a bin directory, a test directory and an index.json at the repository root. The index.json is the registry that maps module names, which is how the per-module require paths resolve.

The build is driven by a tool the repository calls eustia, which is also one of the package keywords. The package.json scripts show the shape of it: `licia build` produces `.licia/packages/licia`, `npm run es5` runs `node ./lib/es5`, and `npm run build` finishes with `copyfiles -u 2 .licia/packages/licia/* node_modules`. Tests run through mocha under nyc coverage, with separate targets for node, browser, the built release output and TypeScript (`licia test -s --ts && tsc`). Browser tests use karma, and there is a Sauce Labs variant behind `--sauce`.

So the data flow is: source modules in src, a build step that assembles a package under .licia, a copy step that places the built files into node_modules, and a test matrix that exercises node, browser and release builds separately. That is a heavier release process than most utility libraries carry, and it explains why the repository ships a docker-compose.yml that pins node:12.22.12 with a 200M memory limit for running a single module's test file.

Installing Licia and using your first module

Installation is a single npm command. The README gives it directly:

npm i licia --save

Note that package.json declares a postinstall script, `node ./lib/setup`. That runs automatically after install, so if your environment blocks postinstall scripts, the install behaviour will differ from the documented path.

Once installed, modules are imported by path rather than from a single entry point. The README's own example uses uuid:

const uuid = require('licia/uuid');

console.log(uuid()); // -> 0e3b84af-f911-4a55-b78a-cedf6f0bd815

Running that prints a generated identifier in the 8-4-4-4-12 format shown in the comment. The same require pattern applies to the other modules the README names, so `require('licia/dateFormat')`, `require('licia/cookie')` and `require('licia/dom')` follow the same shape. The repository also contains a demo directory with per-module HTML files such as demo/Class.demo.html, demo/Promise.demo.html and demo/notify.demo.html, and a `npm run demo` script, which is the fastest way to see a module's behaviour before wiring it into an application.

If you want ES6 output or smaller bundles, the README points at a separate package, licia-es, and at an online builder at licia.liriliri.io/builder.html for assembling a custom subset.

The single-package model is the main trade-off

The honest limitation is the one the README presents as the selling point. Licia is a collection of over 400 modules in one npm package. Per-module require paths mean you do not load all 400 at runtime, but you do take on a dependency whose installed footprint and version surface cover far more than the two or three functions you called. When you file an issue about uuid, the maintainer is looking at a repository that also contains a Tween demo, a ResizeSensor demo and a MediaQuery demo.

There is also a second constraint worth naming. The README directs anyone wanting ES6 modules or smaller bundles to licia-es rather than offering that as the default. That means the main package's output format is not the one a modern bundler-first project would pick by default, and choosing Licia means either accepting the CommonJS shape or adding a second package to your dependency list.

The maintenance picture is mixed and worth stating plainly. The last push to the repository was on 2026-08-13, and v1.49.0 was released the same day. Before that, v1.48.1 landed on 2026-05-11 and v1.48.0 on 2025-03-27. So releases do arrive, but the gap between v1.48.0 and v1.48.1 was roughly six weeks and the gap before v1.48.0 was longer than a year. A library holding 400 modules at that release cadence means individual modules can sit unchanged for a long time, and the README does not document a per-module support or deprecation policy.

How Licia differs from lodash and the modular approach

Lodash is the obvious comparison, and the difference is not about which function set is larger. Lodash ships a curated core with a documented, versioned API and a well-known upgrade path. Licia ships breadth: a dom module written in jQuery coding style, a cookie library, Ajax and a Promise-based fetch, an event emitter, a Promise polyfill, and mkdir. Several of those are not utility functions at all but small runtime libraries, and bundling them under one package name is a design choice lodash did not make.

The second alternative is the one-module-per-package approach: pull uuid, a date formatter and an event emitter as separate dependencies. That gives you independent versioning and independent maintenance signals, at the cost of managing more entries in package.json and reconciling more transitive dependency trees. Licia's answer is that one install covers all of it, and the README's benefits list is essentially that argument.

The third path is licia-es, which the README presents as the same project's answer for ES6 consumers and smaller bundles. That is not a competing library so much as a second output format from the same source, which is worth knowing before you assume Licia has no ES module story at all.

Maintenance, licensing and upgrade cost

The licence is MIT, declared in package.json and in the LICENSE file at the repository root. MIT is permissive: it allows commercial and closed-source use, and it requires the copyright notice and permission notice to be preserved. That is the extent of what the repository states; anything beyond that is a question for your own legal review, not something the README addresses.

Upgrade cost is where the collection model bites. Because modules are imported by path from a single package, upgrading Licia to pick up a fix in one module also moves every other module you import. There is no documented per-module versioning, and the README does not describe a rollback procedure or a deprecation timeline for modules being retired. The CHANGELOG.md file at the repository root is where release-level changes are recorded, so that is the file to read before bumping the version.

The test setup also signals the intended support surface. The docker-compose.yml pins node:12.22.12, and the test scripts cover node, browser, release builds and TypeScript declarations. If your runtime is meaningfully newer than Node 12, the repository's own test configuration is not evidence that your environment is covered.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Licia when you want one install to cover uuid, dateFormat, cookie handling, dom helpers, an event emitter and a Promise polyfill, and you are comfortable with a large collection you import one path at a time. Do not adopt it if you need tree-shaken ES module output as the default entry point, or if you want every utility to carry an explicit maintenance commitment. Before committing, verify three things yourself: run npm i licia in a scratch project and confirm the node ./lib/setup postinstall step completes, check that the specific module you need exists in the repository's src directory, and read index.json to see how modules are registered. If the postinstall step fails in your CI image, the package will not be usable there regardless of what the README promises.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: MIT
2. liriliri/licia on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases