Detect if called through require or directly by command line
if (require.main === module) {
console.log('called directly');
} else {
console.log('required as a module');
}
See documentation for this here: https://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/modules.html#modules_accessing_the_main_module
There is another, slightly shorter way (not outlined in the mentioned docs).
var runningAsScript = !module.parent;
I outlined more details about how this all works under the hood in this blog post.