Installation

@cosyte/dicom is a metadata-first DICOM Part 10 parser for Node.js/TypeScript. It ships dual ESM + CJS builds with per-condition type declarations, so it works from either module system without configuration, and it takes zero runtime dependencies: the byte-level and character-set work is done in-house (the package budget allows up to three ADR-justified deps; none are currently taken).

Status: pre-alpha, public, and published on npm on the 0.0.x-until-first-alpha ladder. The install command below is live; expect the surface to keep moving until first alpha. For the current version, read npm view @cosyte/dicom version rather than a number written in a doc.

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 22. The whole @cosyte/* suite targets ES2023 / Node 22+.
• A package manager: pnpm, npm, or yarn.
• No runtime dependencies, no native build, no post-install script. The data dictionary is generated from the official DICOM Part 6 source at build time and committed, so at runtime there is no network or filesystem lookup.

Install

npm install @cosyte/dicom

Smoke test

Confirm the package resolves and a real entry point is callable: parse the smallest synthetic Part 10 object and read a field back through a typed view:

import { parseDicom } from "@cosyte/dicom";

// Synthetic Part 10 object (base64): a tiny CT header, invented MRN, fake UIDs. No real PHI.
const buf = Buffer.from(
  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABESUNNAgAAAFVMBAAcAAAAAgAQAFVJFAAxLjIuODQwLjEwMDA4LjEuMi4xAAgAYABDUwIAQ1QQACAATE8GAE1STi00Mg==",
  "base64",
);

const ds = parseDicom(buf);

ds.series.modality; // => "CT"
ds.patient.id; // => "MRN-42"
ds.warnings.length; // => 0

If that resolves and returns, the install is good. Head to the Quickstart.

Module systems

@cosyte/dicom is "type": "module" and exposes both conditions, so both of these resolve to the right build without extra configuration:

// ESM / TypeScript
import { parseDicom, serializeDicom, deidentify } from "@cosyte/dicom";

// CommonJS
const { parseDicom, serializeDicom, deidentify } = require("@cosyte/dicom");

The single top-level entry point (@cosyte/dicom) publishes per-condition types (.d.ts for import, .d.cts for require), gated by attw on every release. Editor IntelliSense matches the build you actually load.

PHI discipline

Every example in this documentation is built from a synthetic object (an invented patient, obviously-fake UIDs and MRNs) encoded as a small base64 buffer so a snippet needs no file on disk. Do the same in your own tests: a real DICOM object is PHI, and one committed to a repository is a leak the moment it publishes. The parser helps: every warning and error message carries only structural locators (attribute tag, byte offset, code), never a patient name, an identifier, or pixel content. See Troubleshooting for the redaction posture and the explicit non-goals.