I'm running a nodejs app on an embedded device (think beaglebone black or raspberry pi). For non-trivial projects, npm install takes a significant amount of time on a live device. Instead I typically do the install from an x86 host using chroot and qemu-user-static. It seems like this would be great for simplifying app distribution for embedded targets.

I also use gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf to cross-compile the kernel from x86 host, if it's more manageable to specify a cross-toolchain and stay within the x86 host env instead of a chroot.

FWIW I also use several native modules (serialport, bcrpypt and node-sqlite) so would possibly be impacted by #25