We have a system consisting of several server side Node.js components. We would like to integrate NodeBB in our system as the 'forum' server. Our client do not reside in a browser and they use some external protocol such as XMPP to communicate with our backend server.

We would have a server component that translates XMPP and then interface with NodeBB. There are two possibilities, one is to run NodeBB in the same Node.js runtime as our server. And the other is to run NodeBB in a separate Node,js runtime and have the server talk to NodeBB using some wire protocol.

What is the best way to achieve this? We could not find any document regarding any external APIs or protocol that can be used.
Thanks