Node doesn't exit after renderMedia()/renderFrames() unless closeBrowser() is called

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@elwizard33 is already working on this.

Since Nov 2, 2026.

  • #28 by @elwizard33 — open

Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
node.js, typescript
Domain
api, backend

Research direction

Start by reading the renderer API entry points for renderMedia(), renderFrames() and openBrowser(), and compare their browser lifecycle with the CLI's finally cleanup. Issue #28 is already open for the documentation change, so check its scope before taking this on. Done means a render-only script exits as expected, or the intended need to call closeBrowser() is clearly documented.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

When I use the renderer API from a script, the process keeps running after the render and stitch are finished:

import path from 'node:path';
import { bundle } from '@rendiv/bundler';
import { selectComposition, renderMedia } from '@rendiv/renderer';

const serveUrl = await bundle({ entryPoint: path.resolve('src/index.tsx') });
const composition = await selectComposition(serveUrl, 'MyComp');
await renderMedia({ serveUrl, composition, outputLocation: 'out/out.mp4' });
console.log('done'); // prints, but the process never exits

It's the shared Chromium from openBrowser(). It stays open after the render, and its child processes keep the event loop alive. process.getActiveResourcesInfo() after done shows two ProcessWrap and six PipeWrap handles, and the process was still running 45 s later (master 6d6aca2, Windows 11, Node 24). Adding await closeBrowser() at the end fixes it, and the process exits right away. I first suspected Vite's esbuild from bundle() as well, but it isn't holding anything open.

I see the CLI already calls closeBrowser() in a finally, and I guess the browser is kept open on purpose so later renders are faster. So I think the simplest fix is to mention it in the docs, which don't cover closeBrowser() right now. I opened #28 for that. While I was there I also fixed the usage example: it imports bundle from @rendiv/renderer and passes compositionId, which renderMedia doesn't take.

If you'd rather handle it in code, something like a closeBrowserWhenDone option would work too.

Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
159
Forks
32
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