NodeJs: fs.stat() or fs.access() to check if a folder exists?

I guess the documentation suggest to use fs.access to check if a file exists when there's no manipulation afterwards is because it's a lower level and simple API with a single purpose of checking file-access metadata (which include whether a file exists or not). A simpler API might be little bit better too in term of performance as it may just be a straightforward mapping to the underlying native code.(NOTE: I haven't do any benchmark, take my statement with grain of salt).

fs.stat provide a higher level of abstraction compared to fs.access. It returns information beyond file-access.

import {promises as fs} from "fs";
import * as oldfs from "fs";

(async function() {
    // fs.stat has higher level abstraction
    const stat = await fs.stat(__dirname);
    console.log(stat.isDirectory());
    console.log(stat.isFile());
    console.log(stat.ctime);
    console.log(stat.size);

    try {
        // fs.access is low level API, it throws error when it doesn't match any of the flags
        // is dir exists? writable? readable?
        await fs.access(__dirname, oldfs.constants.F_OK | oldfs.constants.W_OK | oldfs.constants.R_OK);
    } catch (error) {
        console.log(`${__dirname} is not exists / writable / readable`);
    }
})();

You can easily do it synchronously via existsSync().

But if you want to do it asynchronously, just do it like this:

await fs.promises.access("path");

Or put it within a try-catch like this...

try {
     await fs.promises.access("path");
    // The check succeeded
} catch (error) {
    // The check failed
}