Integrating WebAssembly Modules in Node.js Applications

# Title: Integrating WebAssembly Modules in Node.js Applications
# Description: Best practices for incorporating WebAssembly modules into Node.js projects to achieve near-native performance for computationally intensive tasks.
# Category: Node.js Cursor Rules

## WebAssembly Module Integration
- Compile performance-critical code to WebAssembly using languages like Rust or C/C++.
- Use tools such as `wasm-pack` for Rust or `emscripten` for C/C++ to generate `.wasm` files.
- Ensure the WebAssembly module is optimized for size and performance.

## Loading and Instantiating WebAssembly Modules
- Use Node.js's `fs` module to read the `.wasm` file into a buffer.
- Instantiate the WebAssembly module using `WebAssembly.instantiate` or `WebAssembly.instantiateStreaming` for efficient loading.
- Handle asynchronous instantiation properly using `async/await` patterns.

## Memory Management
- Allocate and manage memory between Node.js and WebAssembly carefully to prevent memory leaks.
- Use shared memory buffers when necessary, ensuring proper synchronization.

## Interfacing Between Node.js and WebAssembly
- Define clear interfaces for functions exported from WebAssembly modules.
- Use JavaScript's `TypedArray` objects for efficient data exchange.
- Handle exceptions and errors gracefully when calling WebAssembly functions.

## Security Considerations
- Validate and sanitize inputs to WebAssembly modules to prevent vulnerabilities.
- Keep WebAssembly modules and their dependencies up to date to mitigate security risks.

## Testing and Debugging
- Write unit tests for WebAssembly functions to ensure correctness.
- Use tools like `wasm-opt` for optimizing and debugging WebAssembly modules.
- Leverage Node.js's debugging tools to step through WebAssembly code when necessary.

## Performance Monitoring
- Profile WebAssembly modules to identify and address performance bottlenecks.
- Monitor the performance impact of WebAssembly integration on the overall Node.js application.

## Documentation
- Document the purpose and usage of each WebAssembly module within the project.
- Provide clear instructions for building and integrating WebAssembly modules into the Node.js application.