does node have a place to put custom console methods like ~/.irbrc?

I was thinking it would be handy if I could reload! code in the Node console, something to the effect of:

reload('./path/to/my/file.js')

that would delete the code from the cache then load it again -- handy for exercising prototype code. Seemed like a natural function to place in node's equivalent of ~/.irbrc. But I can't find that. Does node have such a thing?

I don't know there's such a tool. But I believe what you need can be achieved by using nodemon.

Use sudo npm install nodemon -g to install it. Then launch your application by nodemon app.js instead of node app.js. Then it watches for changes to nearby .js files, and automatically restart when you save.