Add the babel-cli and babel-preset-es2015 (aka ES6) dependencies to your app's package.json file and define a start script:

{

  dependencies: {

    babel-cli: ^6.0.0,

    babel-preset-es2015: ^6.0.0

  },

  scripts: {

    start: babel-node --presets es2015 app.js

  }

}

Then you can simply execute the following command to run your app:

npm start

If you ever decide to stop using Babel (e.g. once Node.js supports all ES6 features), you can just remove it from package.json:

{

  dependencies: {},

  scripts: {

    start: node app.js

  }

}

One benefit of this is that the command to run your app remains the same, which helps if you are working with other developers.