What is Oxidized Image?
The motivation behind Oxidized Image and how it differs from existing solutions
The Problem
Most modern bundlers rely on Sharp for image optimization — either through community plugins or, as in Astro's case, as the default built-in image service.
Sharp is a capable library, but it has its performance limits — particularly under concurrent load or when encoding modern formats like WebP and AVIF at scale.
The Solution
Oxidized Image was built to replace Sharp with @napi-rs/image, a Rust-based image processing engine exposed to Node.js via NAPI-RS. The result is faster encoding, especially for WebP, without sacrificing compatibility or ease of use.
Beyond raw performance, Oxidized Image also provides a richer configuration API, giving you more control over encoding quality, format selection, and processing behavior than most existing plugins allow.
Who Is It For?
Oxidized Image is designed for developers who want faster image optimization with more flexibility. Currently, first-party integrations are available for Vite and Astro, with support for additional bundlers and frameworks planned for the future. All integrations share the same underlying engine and configuration model, making it straightforward to adopt across different toolchains.