# Nanoid — Tiny Secure URL-Friendly Unique ID Generator

> A tiny (118 bytes), secure, URL-friendly, unique string ID generator for JavaScript with no dependencies, used by millions of projects as a modern UUID alternative.

## Install

Save as a script file and run:

# Nanoid — Tiny Secure URL-Friendly Unique ID Generator

## Quick Use
```bash
npm install nanoid
```
```js
import { nanoid } from 'nanoid';
const id = nanoid(); // "V1StGXR8_Z5jdHi6B-myT"
```

## Introduction
Nanoid generates unique string IDs that are URL-safe, compact, and cryptographically strong. At only 118 bytes minified and brotlied with zero dependencies, it serves as a lighter and shorter alternative to UUID v4 while maintaining a comparable collision probability.

## What Nanoid Does
- Generates secure random IDs using the hardware random number generator
- Produces 21-character IDs by default using a URL-safe alphabet (A-Za-z0-9_-)
- Supports custom alphabet and ID length through the customAlphabet function
- Provides a non-secure variant for performance-sensitive, non-cryptographic use cases
- Works in Node.js, browsers, Deno, Bun, and React Native environments

## Architecture Overview
Nanoid reads bytes from crypto.getRandomValues (browser) or crypto.randomBytes (Node.js), then maps those bytes to a 64-character URL-safe alphabet using a bitmask-based uniform distribution algorithm. This avoids modulo bias, ensuring every character in the alphabet has equal probability.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Install via npm, yarn, or pnpm: `npm install nanoid`
- Import as ESM: `import { nanoid } from 'nanoid'`
- Adjust ID length: `nanoid(10)` for a 10-character ID
- Use `customAlphabet` to define your own character set and length
- For non-cryptographic contexts, import from `nanoid/non-secure` for faster generation

## Key Features
- 118 bytes minified and brotlied with zero dependencies
- Uses cryptographically strong random values by default
- Shorter IDs than UUID (21 vs 36 chars) with similar collision probability
- Ported to over 20 languages including Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Java
- Works across all major JS runtimes without polyfills

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **UUID (uuid package)** — 36-character output, widely recognized format; larger and not URL-safe by default
- **cuid2** — collision-resistant IDs for horizontal scaling; larger output, more opinionated
- **ULID** — sortable 26-char IDs with timestamp prefix; not cryptographically random
- **shortid** — deprecated predecessor; smaller alphabet, less secure
- **crypto.randomUUID()** — built-in browser API; UUID v4 only, 36 characters

## FAQ
**Q: Is Nanoid safe for database primary keys?**
A: Yes. With default settings the collision probability is negligible for practical workloads; you would need to generate roughly one billion IDs per second for 34 years to reach a 1% chance of a single collision.

**Q: Can I generate IDs with only lowercase letters and numbers?**
A: Yes. Use `customAlphabet('0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz', 12)` to get 12-char lowercase alphanumeric IDs.

**Q: Does Nanoid support SSR frameworks like Next.js?**
A: Yes. Since it uses standard crypto APIs available in both Node.js and browsers, it works seamlessly in server and client components.

**Q: How does Nanoid compare to UUID v4 in collision probability?**
A: Nanoid uses 126 bits of randomness versus UUID v4 with 122 bits, giving Nanoid a slightly lower collision probability despite shorter output.

## Sources
- https://github.com/ai/nanoid
- https://zelark.github.io/nano-id-cc/

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/asset-3966af6f
Author: Script Depot