nw.js is chrome plus nodejs. It will succeed everywhere chrome succeeds, but fail in many cases where nodejs succeeds (see issue 9071). So it's safer to consider it as a browser context rather than a nodejs context. Make travis happy again CS Readability + Explanation The relevant portion of the NW.js documentation: http://docs.nwjs.io/en/latest/For%20Users/Advanced/JavaScript%20Contexts%20in%20NW.js/#access-nodejs-and-nwjs-api-in-browser-context Added full link to relevant doc.