The 'got' npm package is a human-friendly and powerful HTTP request library for Node.js. It provides an easy-to-use API for making HTTP requests and supports many features like streams, pagination, JSON parsing, and more.
Simplified HTTP requests
This feature allows you to perform HTTP GET requests with a promise-based API. The example shows how to fetch a webpage and log the HTML content.
const got = require('got');
got('https://sindresorhus.com').then(response => {
console.log(response.body);
}).catch(error => {
console.log(error.response.body);
});JSON support
This feature automatically parses JSON responses. The example demonstrates fetching JSON data from an API and logging the parsed object.
const got = require('got');
got('https://api.example.com/data', { responseType: 'json' }).then(response => {
console.log(response.body);
}).catch(error => {
console.log(error.response.body);
});POST requests
This feature allows you to send POST requests with JSON bodies. The example shows how to send a POST request with a JSON payload and receive a JSON response.
const got = require('got');
got.post('https://api.example.com/submit', {
json: {
key: 'value'
},
responseType: 'json'
}).then(response => {
console.log(response.body);
}).catch(error => {
console.log(error.response.body);
});Error handling
This feature provides comprehensive error handling for various types of request failures. The example demonstrates how to handle different error scenarios when a request fails.
const got = require('got');
got('https://api.example.com/wrong-endpoint').then(response => {
console.log(response.body);
}).catch(error => {
if (error.response) {
console.log('The server responded with a non-2xx status code.');
} else if (error.request) {
console.log('The request was made but no response was received');
} else {
console.log('An error occurred when trying to perform the request.');
}
});Stream support
This feature allows you to use got as a stream. The example shows how to stream a webpage's content and write it to a file.
const got = require('got');
const fs = require('fs');
const stream = got.stream('https://sindresorhus.com');
stream.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('index.html'));Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. It provides an API similar to got but also works in the browser. Axios has interceptors that allow you to transform requests and responses before they are handled by then or catch.
Request is a simplified HTTP request client that was very popular but is now deprecated. It had a callback-based API but also supported promises. Got is considered a modern alternative to Request with promise support by default.
Node-fetch is a light-weight module that brings the Fetch API to Node.js. It is a minimalistic and straightforward API that resembles the Fetch API provided by modern browsers, making it familiar to front-end developers.
Superagent is a small progressive client-side HTTP request library. It has a fluent API that allows chaining methods to configure requests, and it can be used on both server and client side. Compared to got, it has a more object-oriented style.
Huge thanks to 
for sponsoring Sindre Sorhus!
Human-friendly and powerful HTTP request library for Node.js
Moving from Request? (Note that Request is unmaintained)
See how Got compares to other HTTP libraries
For browser usage, we recommend Ky by the same people.
$ npm install got
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
try {
const response = await got('https://sindresorhus.com');
console.log(response.body);
//=> '<!doctype html> ...'
} catch (error) {
console.log(error.response.body);
//=> 'Internal server error ...'
}
})();
const stream = require('stream');
const {promisify} = require('util');
const fs = require('fs');
const got = require('got');
const pipeline = promisify(stream.pipeline);
(async () => {
await pipeline(
got.stream('https://sindresorhus.com'),
fs.createWriteStream('index.html')
);
// For POST, PUT, and PATCH methods `got.stream` returns a `stream.Writable`
await pipeline(
fs.createReadStream('index.html'),
got.stream.post('https://sindresorhus.com')
);
})();
Tip: from.pipe(to) doesn't forward errors. Instead, use stream.pipeline(from, ..., to, callback).
It's a GET request by default, but can be changed by using different methods or via options.method.
By default, Got will retry on failure. To disable this option, set options.retry to 0.
Returns a Promise giving a Response object or a Got Stream if options.isStream is set to true.
Type: string | object
The URL to request, as a string, a https.request options object, or a WHATWG URL.
Properties from options will override properties in the parsed url.
If no protocol is specified, it will throw a TypeError.
Type: object
Any of the https.request options.
Note: Legacy URL support is disabled. options.path is supported only for backwards compatibility. Use options.pathname and options.searchParams instead. options.auth has been replaced with options.username & options.password.
Type: string
Default: GET
The HTTP method used to make the request.
Type: string | URL
When specified, prefixUrl will be prepended to url. The prefix can be any valid URL, either relative or absolute.
A trailing slash / is optional - one will be added automatically.
Note: prefixUrl will be ignored if the url argument is a URL instance.
Note: Leading slashes in input are disallowed when using this option to enforce consistency and avoid confusion. For example, when the prefix URL is https://example.com/foo and the input is /bar, there's ambiguity whether the resulting URL would become https://example.com/foo/bar or https://example.com/bar. The latter is used by browsers.
Tip: Useful when used with got.extend() to create niche-specific Got instances.
Tip: You can change prefixUrl using hooks as long as the URL still includes the prefixUrl. If the URL doesn't include it anymore, it will throw.
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
await got('unicorn', {prefixUrl: 'https://cats.com'});
//=> 'https://cats.com/unicorn'
const instance = got.extend({
prefixUrl: 'https://google.com'
});
await instance('unicorn', {
hooks: {
beforeRequest: [
options => {
options.prefixUrl = 'https://cats.com';
}
]
}
});
//=> 'https://cats.com/unicorn'
})();
Type: object
Default: {}
Request headers.
Existing headers will be overwritten. Headers set to undefined will be omitted.
Type: boolean
Default: false
Returns a Stream instead of a Promise. This is equivalent to calling got.stream(url, options?).
Type: string | Buffer | stream.Readable or form-data instance
Note #1: The body option cannot be used with the json or form option.
Note #2: If you provide this option, got.stream() will be read-only.
Note #3: If you provide a payload with the GET or HEAD method, it will throw a TypeError unless the method is GET and the allowGetBody option is set to true.
Note #4: This option is not enumerable and will not be merged with the instance defaults.
The content-length header will be automatically set if body is a string / Buffer / fs.createReadStream instance / form-data instance, and content-length and transfer-encoding are not manually set in options.headers.
Type: object | Array | number | string | boolean | null (JSON-serializable values)
Note #1: If you provide this option, got.stream() will be read-only.
Note #2: This option is not enumerable and will not be merged with the instance defaults.
JSON body. If the Content-Type header is not set, it will be set to application/json.
Type: object
User data. In contrast to other options, context is not enumerable.
Note: The object is never merged, it's just passed through. Got will not modify the object in any way.
It's very useful for storing auth tokens:
const got = require('got');
const instance = got.extend({
hooks: {
beforeRequest: [
options => {
if (!options.context || !options.context.token) {
throw new Error('Token required');
}
options.headers.token = options.context.token;
}
]
}
});
(async () => {
const context = {
token: 'secret'
};
const response = await instance('https://httpbin.org/headers', {context});
// Let's see the headers
console.log(response.body);
})();
Type: string
Default: 'text'
Note: When using streams, this option is ignored.
The parsing method. Can be 'text', 'json' or 'buffer'.
The promise also has .text(), .json() and .buffer() methods which return another Got promise for the parsed body.
It's like setting the options to {responseType: 'json', resolveBodyOnly: true} but without affecting the main Got promise.
Example:
(async () => {
const responsePromise = got(url);
const bufferPromise = responsePromise.buffer();
const jsonPromise = responsePromise.json();
const [response, buffer, json] = Promise.all([responsePromise, bufferPromise, jsonPromise]);
// `response` is an instance of Got Response
// `buffer` is an instance of Buffer
// `json` is an object
})();
// This
const body = await got(url).json();
// is semantically the same as this
const body = await got(url, {responseType: 'json', resolveBodyOnly: true});
Type: boolean
Default: false
When set to true the promise will return the Response body instead of the Response object.
Type: object | tough.CookieJar instance
Note: If you provide this option, options.headers.cookie will be overridden.
Cookie support. You don't have to care about parsing or how to store them. Example.
Type: Function<Promise>
The function takes two arguments: rawCookie (string) and url (string).
Type: Function<Promise>
The function takes one argument: url (string).
Type: boolean
Default: false
Ignore invalid cookies instead of throwing an error. Only useful when the cookieJar option has been set. Not recommended.
Type: string
Default: 'utf8'
Encoding to be used on setEncoding of the response data.
To get a Buffer, you need to set responseType to buffer instead.
Note: This doesn't affect streams! Instead, you need to do got.stream(...).setEncoding(encoding).
Type: object
Note #1: If you provide this option, got.stream() will be read-only.
Note #2: This option is not enumerable and will not be merged with the instance defaults.
The form body is converted to a query string using (new URLSearchParams(object)).toString().
If the Content-Type header is not present, it will be set to application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
Type: string | object<string, string | number> | URLSearchParams
Query string that will be added to the request URL. This will override the query string in url.
If you need to pass in an array, you can do it using a URLSearchParams instance:
const got = require('got');
const searchParams = new URLSearchParams([['key', 'a'], ['key', 'b']]);
got('https://example.com', {searchParams});
console.log(searchParams.toString());
//=> 'key=a&key=b'
Type: number | object
Milliseconds to wait for the server to end the response before aborting the request with got.TimeoutError error (a.k.a. request property). By default, there's no timeout.
This also accepts an object with the following fields to constrain the duration of each phase of the request lifecycle:
lookup starts when a socket is assigned and ends when the hostname has been resolved. Does not apply when using a Unix domain socket.connect starts when lookup completes (or when the socket is assigned if lookup does not apply to the request) and ends when the socket is connected.secureConnect starts when connect completes and ends when the handshaking process completes (HTTPS only).socket starts when the socket is connected. See request.setTimeout.response starts when the request has been written to the socket and ends when the response headers are received.send starts when the socket is connected and ends with the request has been written to the socket.request starts when the request is initiated and ends when the response's end event fires.Type: number | object
Default:
2({attemptCount, retryOptions, error, computedValue}) => computedValueGET PUT HEAD DELETE OPTIONS TRACE408 413 429 500 502 503 504 521 522 524undefinedETIMEDOUT ECONNRESET EADDRINUSE ECONNREFUSED EPIPE ENOTFOUND ENETUNREACH EAI_AGAINAn object representing limit, calculateDelay, methods, statusCodes, maxRetryAfter and errorCodes fields for maximum retry count, retry handler, allowed methods, allowed status codes, maximum Retry-After time and allowed error codes.
Note: When using streams, this option is ignored. If the connection is reset when downloading, you need to catch the error and clear the file you were writing into to prevent duplicated content.
If maxRetryAfter is set to undefined, it will use options.timeout.
If Retry-After header is greater than maxRetryAfter, it will cancel the request.
Delays between retries counts with function 1000 * Math.pow(2, retry) + Math.random() * 100, where retry is attempt number (starts from 1).
The calculateDelay property is a function that receives an object with attemptCount, retryOptions, error and computedValue properties for current retry count, the retry options, error and default computed value. The function must return a delay in milliseconds (0 return value cancels retry).
By default, it retries only on the specified methods, status codes, and on these network errors:
ETIMEDOUT: One of the timeout limits were reached.ECONNRESET: Connection was forcibly closed by a peer.EADDRINUSE: Could not bind to any free port.ECONNREFUSED: Connection was refused by the server.EPIPE: The remote side of the stream being written has been closed.ENOTFOUND: Couldn't resolve the hostname to an IP address.ENETUNREACH: No internet connection.EAI_AGAIN: DNS lookup timed out.Type: boolean
Default: true
Defines if redirect responses should be followed automatically.
Note that if a 303 is sent by the server in response to any request type (POST, DELETE, etc.), Got will automatically request the resource pointed to in the location header via GET. This is in accordance with the spec.
Type: boolean
Default: true
By default, redirects will use method rewriting. For example, when sending a POST request and receiving a 302, it will resend the body to the new location using the same HTTP method (POST in this case).
Type: boolean
Default: false
Note: The RFC 7321 doesn't specify any particular behavior for the GET method having a payload, therefore it's considered an anti-pattern.
Set this to true to allow sending body for the GET method. However, the HTTP/2 specification says that An HTTP GET request includes request header fields and no payload body, therefore when using the HTTP/2 protocol this option will have no effect. This option is only meant to interact with non-compliant servers when you have no other choice.
Type: number
Default: 10
If exceeded, the request will be aborted and a MaxRedirectsError will be thrown.
Type: boolean
Default: true
Decompress the response automatically. This will set the accept-encoding header to gzip, deflate, br on Node.js 11.7.0+ or gzip, deflate for older Node.js versions, unless you set it yourself.
Brotli (br) support requires Node.js 11.7.0 or later.
If this is disabled, a compressed response is returned as a Buffer. This may be useful if you want to handle decompression yourself or stream the raw compressed data.
Type: object
Default: false
Cache adapter instance for storing cached response data.
Type: object
Default: new CacheableLookup()
An instance of CacheableLookup used for making DNS lookups.
Type: Function
Default: http.request | https.request (Depending on the protocol)
Custom request function. The main purpose of this is to support HTTP2 using a wrapper.
Type: boolean
Default: false
If set to true, Got will additionally accept HTTP2 requests.
It will choose either HTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2 depending on the ALPN protocol.
Note: Overriding options.request will disable HTTP2 support.
Note: This option will default to true in the next upcoming major release.
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
const {headers} = await got('https://nghttp2.org/httpbin/anything', {http2: true});
console.log(headers.via);
//=> '2 nghttpx'
})();
Type: boolean
Default: true
Determines if a got.HTTPError is thrown for error responses (non-2xx status codes).
If this is disabled, requests that encounter an error status code will be resolved with the response instead of throwing. This may be useful if you are checking for resource availability and are expecting error responses.
Type: object
An object representing http, https and http2 keys for http.Agent, https.Agent and http2wrapper.Agent instance. This is necessary because a request to one protocol might redirect to another. In such a scenario, Got will switch over to the right protocol agent for you.
If a key is not present, it will default to a global agent.
const got = require('got');
const HttpAgent = require('agentkeepalive');
const {HttpsAgent} = HttpAgent;
got('https://sindresorhus.com', {
agent: {
http: new HttpAgent(),
https: new HttpsAgent()
}
});
Type: object<string, Function[]>
Hooks allow modifications during the request lifecycle. Hook functions may be async and are run serially.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
Called with plain request options, right before their normalization. This is especially useful in conjunction with got.extend() when the input needs custom handling.
See the Request migration guide for an example.
Note #1: This hook must be synchronous!
Note #2: Errors in this hook will be converted into an instances of RequestError.
Note #3: The options object may not have a url property. To modify it, use a beforeRequest hook instead.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
Called with normalized request options. Got will make no further changes to the request before it is sent. This is especially useful in conjunction with got.extend() when you want to create an API client that, for example, uses HMAC-signing.
See the AWS section for an example.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
Called with normalized request options and the redirect response. Got will make no further changes to the request. This is especially useful when you want to avoid dead sites. Example:
const got = require('got');
got('https://example.com', {
hooks: {
beforeRedirect: [
(options, response) => {
if (options.hostname === 'deadSite') {
options.hostname = 'fallbackSite';
}
}
]
}
});
Type: Function[]
Default: []
Note: When using streams, this hook is ignored.
Called with normalized request options, the error and the retry count. Got will make no further changes to the request. This is especially useful when some extra work is required before the next try. Example:
const got = require('got');
got.post('https://example.com', {
hooks: {
beforeRetry: [
(options, error, retryCount) => {
if (error.response.statusCode === 413) { // Payload too large
options.body = getNewBody();
}
}
]
}
});
Note: When retrying in a afterResponse hook, all remaining beforeRetry hooks will be called without the error and retryCount arguments.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
Note: When using streams, this hook is ignored.
Called with response object and a retry function. Calling the retry function will trigger beforeRetry hooks.
Each function should return the response. This is especially useful when you want to refresh an access token. Example:
const got = require('got');
const instance = got.extend({
hooks: {
afterResponse: [
(response, retryWithMergedOptions) => {
if (response.statusCode === 401) { // Unauthorized
const updatedOptions = {
headers: {
token: getNewToken() // Refresh the access token
}
};
// Save for further requests
instance.defaults.options = got.mergeOptions(instance.defaults.options, updatedOptions);
// Make a new retry
return retryWithMergedOptions(updatedOptions);
}
// No changes otherwise
return response;
}
],
beforeRetry: [
(options, error, retryCount) => {
// This will be called on `retryWithMergedOptions(...)`
}
]
},
mutableDefaults: true
});
Type: Function[]
Default: []
Called with an Error instance. The error is passed to the hook right before it's thrown. This is especially useful when you want to have more detailed errors.
Note: Errors thrown while normalizing input options are thrown directly and not part of this hook.
const got = require('got');
got('https://api.github.com/some-endpoint', {
hooks: {
beforeError: [
error => {
const {response} = error;
if (response && response.body) {
error.name = 'GitHubError';
error.message = `${response.body.message} (${response.statusCode})`;
}
return error;
}
]
}
});
Type: object
Note: We're looking for feedback, any ideas on how to improve the API are welcome.
Type: Function
Default: response => JSON.parse(response.body)
A function that transform Response into an array of items. This is where you should do the parsing.
Type: Function
Default: Link header logic
The function takes three arguments:
response - The current response object.allItems - An array of the emitted items.currentItems - Items from the current response.It should return an object representing Got options pointing to the next page. If there are no more pages, false should be returned.
For example, if you want to stop when the response contains less items than expected, you can use something like this:
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
const limit = 10;
const items = got.paginate('https://example.com/items', {
searchParams: {
limit,
offset: 0
},
pagination: {
paginate: (response, allItems, currentItems) => {
const previousSearchParams = response.request.options.searchParams;
const {offset: previousOffset} = previousSearchParams;
if (currentItems.length < limit) {
return false;
}
return {
searchParams: {
...previousSearchParams,
offset: previousOffset + limit,
}
};
}
}
});
console.log('Items from all pages:', items);
})();
Type: Function
Default: (item, allItems, currentItems) => true
Checks whether the item should be emitted or not.
Type: Function
Default: (item, allItems, currentItems) => true
Checks whether the pagination should continue.
For example, if you need to stop before emitting an entry with some flag, you should use (item, allItems, currentItems) => !item.flag. If you want to stop after emitting the entry, you should use (item, allItems, currentItems) => allItems.some(entry => entry.flag) instead.
Type: number
Default: Infinity
The maximum amount of items that should be emitted.
Type: string
The IP address used to send the request from.
The response object will typically be a Node.js HTTP response stream, however, if returned from the cache it will be a response-like object which behaves in the same way.
Type: object
Note: This is not a http.ClientRequest.
options - The Got options that were set on this request.Type: string | object | Buffer (Depending on options.responseType)
The result of the request.
Type: Buffer
The raw result of the request.
Type: string
The request URL or the final URL after redirects.
Type: string
The remote IP address.
Note: Not available when the response is cached. This is hopefully a temporary limitation, see lukechilds/cacheable-request#86.
Type: string
The original request URL.
Type: object
The object contains the following properties:
start - Time when the request started.socket - Time when a socket was assigned to the request.lookup - Time when the DNS lookup finished.connect - Time when the socket successfully connected.secureConnect - Time when the socket securely connected.upload - Time when the request finished uploading.response - Time when the request fired response event.end - Time when the response fired end event.error - Time when the request fired error event.abort - Time when the request fired abort event.phases
wait - timings.socket - timings.startdns - timings.lookup - timings.sockettcp - timings.connect - timings.lookuptls - timings.secureConnect - timings.connectrequest - timings.upload - (timings.secureConnect || timings.connect)firstByte - timings.response - timings.uploaddownload - timings.end - timings.responsetotal - (timings.end || timings.error || timings.abort) - timings.startIf something has not been measured yet, it will be undefined.
Note: The time is a number representing the milliseconds elapsed since the UNIX epoch.
Type: boolean
Whether the response was retrieved from the cache.
Type: string[]
The redirect URLs.
Type: number
The number of times the request was retried.
Note: Progress events, redirect events and request/response events can also be used with promises.
Note: To access response.isFromCache you need to use got.stream(url, options).isFromCache. The value will be undefined until the response event.
Sets options.isStream to true.
Returns a duplex stream with additional events:
request event to get the request object of the request.
Tip: You can use request event to abort request:
got.stream('https://github.com')
.on('request', request => setTimeout(() => request.abort(), 50));
The response event to get the response object of the final request.
The redirect event to get the response object of a redirect. The second argument is options for the next request to the redirect location.
Progress events for uploading (sending a request) and downloading (receiving a response). The progress argument is an object like:
{
percent: 0.1,
transferred: 1024,
total: 10240
}
If the content-length header is missing, total will be undefined.
(async () => {
const response = await got('https://sindresorhus.com')
.on('downloadProgress', progress => {
// Report download progress
})
.on('uploadProgress', progress => {
// Report upload progress
});
console.log(response);
})();
Type: string
The remote IP address.
Type: boolean
Indicates whether the request has been aborted or not.
The same as response.timings.
The same as response.isFromCache.
The same as response.socket.
The emitted error is an instance of RequestError.
Returns an async iterator:
(async () => {
const countLimit = 10;
const pagination = got.paginate('https://api.github.com/repos/sindresorhus/got/commits', {
pagination: {countLimit}
});
console.log(`Printing latest ${countLimit} Got commits (newest to oldest):`);
for await (const commitData of pagination) {
console.log(commitData.commit.message);
}
})();
See options.pagination for more pagination options.
Sets options.method to the method name and makes a request.
Configure a new got instance with default options. The options are merged with the parent instance's defaults.options using got.mergeOptions. You can access the resolved options with the .defaults property on the instance.
const client = got.extend({
prefixUrl: 'https://example.com',
headers: {
'x-unicorn': 'rainbow'
}
});
client.get('demo');
/* HTTP Request =>
* GET /demo HTTP/1.1
* Host: example.com
* x-unicorn: rainbow
*/
(async () => {
const client = got.extend({
prefixUrl: 'httpbin.org',
headers: {
'x-foo': 'bar'
}
});
const {headers} = await client.get('headers').json();
//=> headers['x-foo'] === 'bar'
const jsonClient = client.extend({
responseType: 'json',
resolveBodyOnly: true,
headers: {
'x-baz': 'qux'
}
});
const {headers: headers2} = await jsonClient.get('headers');
//=> headers2['x-foo'] === 'bar'
//=> headers2['x-baz'] === 'qux'
})();
Additionally, got.extend() accepts two properties from the defaults object: mutableDefaults and handlers. Example:
// You can now modify `mutableGot.defaults.options`.
const mutableGot = got.extend({mutableDefaults: true});
const mergedHandlers = got.extend({
handlers: [
(options, next) => {
delete options.headers.referer;
return next(options);
}
]
});
Note: Handlers can be asynchronous. The recommended approach is:
const handler = (options, next) => {
if (options.isStream) {
// It's a Stream
return next(options);
}
// It's a Promise
return (async () => {
try {
const response = await next(options);
response.yourOwnProperty = true;
return response;
} catch (error) {
// Every error will be replaced by this one.
// Before you receive any error here,
// it will be passed to the `beforeError` hooks first.
// Note: this one won't be passed to `beforeError` hook. It's final.
throw new Error('Your very own error.');
}
})();
};
const instance = got.extend({handlers: [handler]});
Merges many instances into a single one:
got.mergeOptions() (+ hooks are merged too),instance.defaults.handlers).It's possible to combine options and instances.
It gives the same effect as got.extend(...options).extend(...instances):
const a = {headers: {cat: 'meow'}};
const b = got.extend({
options: {
headers: {
cow: 'moo'
}
}
});
// The same as `got.extend(a).extend(b)`.
// Note `a` is options and `b` is an instance.
got.extend(a, b);
//=> {headers: {cat: 'meow', cow: 'moo'}}
Extends parent options. Avoid using object spread as it doesn't work recursively:
const a = {headers: {cat: 'meow', wolf: ['bark', 'wrrr']}};
const b = {headers: {cow: 'moo', wolf: ['auuu']}};
{...a, ...b} // => {headers: {cow: 'moo', wolf: ['auuu']}}
got.mergeOptions(a, b) // => {headers: {cat: 'meow', cow: 'moo', wolf: ['auuu']}}
Options are deeply merged to a new object. The value of each key is determined as follows:
undefined, it keeps the old one.URLSearchParams, a new URLSearchParams instance is created. The values are merged using urlSearchParams.append(key, value).URL and the new value is a string or URL, a new URL instance is created: new URL(new, parent).object:
object too, both values are merged recursively into a new object.Array, it overwrites the old one with a deep clone of the new property.context, body, json, and form, will not be merged.const a = {json: {cat: 'meow'}};
const b = {json: {cow: 'moo'}};
got.mergeOptions(a, b);
//=> {json: {cow: 'moo'}}
Type: object
The Got defaults used in that instance.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
An array of functions. You execute them directly by calling got(). They are some sort of "global hooks" - these functions are called first. The last handler (it's hidden) is either asPromise or asStream, depending on the options.isStream property.
Each handler takes two arguments:
Returns a Promise or a Stream depending on options.isStream.
const settings = {
handlers: [
(options, next) => {
if (options.isStream) {
// It's a Stream, so we can perform stream-specific actions on it
return next(options)
.on('request', request => {
setTimeout(() => {
request.abort();
}, 50);
});
}
// It's a Promise
return next(options);
}
],
options: got.mergeOptions(got.defaults.options, {
responseType: 'json'
})
};
const jsonGot = got.extend(settings);
Type: boolean
Default: false
A read-only boolean describing whether the defaults are mutable or not. If set to true, you can update headers over time, for example, update an access token when it expires.
Got exports some handy TypeScript types and interfaces. See the type definition for all the exported types.
TypeScript will automatically infer types for Got instances, but in case you want to define something like dependencies, you can import the available types directly from Got.
import {GotRequestFunction} from 'got';
interface Dependencies {
readonly post: GotRequestFunction
}
When writing hooks, you can refer to their types to keep your interfaces consistent.
import {BeforeRequestHook} from 'got';
const addAccessToken = (accessToken: string): BeforeRequestHook => options => {
options.path = `${options.path}?access_token=${accessToken}`;
}
Each error contains an options property which are the options Got used to create a request - just to make debugging easier.
Additionaly, the errors may have request (Got Stream) and response (Got Response) properties depending on which phase of the request failed.
When a cache method fails, for example, if the database goes down or there's a filesystem error.
When a request fails. Contains a code property with error class code, like ECONNREFUSED.
When reading from response stream fails.
When server response code is 2xx, and parsing body fails. Includes a response property.
When the server response code is not 2xx. Includes a response property.
When the server redirects you more than ten times. Includes a response property.
When given an unsupported protocol.
When the request is aborted with .cancel().
When the request is aborted due to a timeout. Includes an event and timings property.
The promise returned by Got has a .cancel() method which when called, aborts the request.
(async () => {
const request = got(url, options);
// …
// In another part of the code
if (something) {
request.cancel();
}
// …
try {
await request;
} catch (error) {
if (request.isCanceled) { // Or `error instanceof got.CancelError`
// Handle cancelation
}
// Handle other errors
}
})();
When using hooks, simply throw an error to abort the request.
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
const request = got(url, {
hooks: {
beforeRequest: [
() => {
throw new Error('Oops. Request canceled.');
}
]
}
});
try {
await request;
} catch (error) {
// …
}
})();
To abort the Got Stream request, just call stream.destroy().
const got = require('got');
const stream = got.stream(url);
stream.destroy();
Got implements RFC 7234 compliant HTTP caching which works out of the box in-memory and is easily pluggable with a wide range of storage adapters. Fresh cache entries are served directly from the cache, and stale cache entries are revalidated with If-None-Match/If-Modified-Since headers. You can read more about the underlying cache behavior in the cacheable-request documentation. For DNS cache, Got uses cacheable-lookup.
You can use the JavaScript Map type as an in-memory cache:
const got = require('got');
const map = new Map();
(async () => {
let response = await got('https://sindresorhus.com', {cache: map});
console.log(response.isFromCache);
//=> false
response = await got('https://sindresorhus.com', {cache: map});
console.log(response.isFromCache);
//=> true
})();
Got uses Keyv internally to support a wide range of storage adapters. For something more scalable you could use an official Keyv storage adapter:
$ npm install @keyv/redis
const got = require('got');
const KeyvRedis = require('@keyv/redis');
const redis = new KeyvRedis('redis://user:pass@localhost:6379');
got('https://sindresorhus.com', {cache: redis});
Got supports anything that follows the Map API, so it's easy to write your own storage adapter or use a third-party solution.
For example, the following are all valid storage adapters:
const storageAdapter = new Map();
// Or
const storageAdapter = require('./my-storage-adapter');
// Or
const QuickLRU = require('quick-lru');
const storageAdapter = new QuickLRU({maxSize: 1000});
got('https://sindresorhus.com', {cache: storageAdapter});
View the Keyv docs for more information on how to use storage adapters.
You can use the tunnel package with the agent option to work with proxies:
const got = require('got');
const tunnel = require('tunnel');
got('https://sindresorhus.com', {
agent: tunnel.httpOverHttp({
proxy: {
host: 'localhost'
}
})
});
Alternatively, use global-agent to configure a global proxy for all HTTP/HTTPS traffic in your program.
You can use the tough-cookie package:
const {promisify} = require('util');
const got = require('got');
const {CookieJar} = require('tough-cookie');
(async () => {
const cookieJar = new CookieJar();
const setCookie = promisify(cookieJar.setCookie.bind(cookieJar));
await setCookie('foo=bar', 'https://example.com');
await got('https://example.com', {cookieJar});
})();
You can use the form-data package to create POST request with form data:
const fs = require('fs');
const got = require('got');
const FormData = require('form-data');
const form = new FormData();
form.append('my_file', fs.createReadStream('/foo/bar.jpg'));
got.post('https://example.com', {
body: form
});
You can use the oauth-1.0a package to create a signed OAuth request:
const got = require('got');
const crypto = require('crypto');
const OAuth = require('oauth-1.0a');
const oauth = OAuth({
consumer: {
key: process.env.CONSUMER_KEY,
secret: process.env.CONSUMER_SECRET
},
signature_method: 'HMAC-SHA1',
hash_function: (baseString, key) => crypto.createHmac('sha1', key).update(baseString).digest('base64')
});
const token = {
key: process.env.ACCESS_TOKEN,
secret: process.env.ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET
};
const url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/home_timeline.json';
got(url, {
headers: oauth.toHeader(oauth.authorize({url, method: 'GET'}, token)),
responseType: 'json'
});
Requests can also be sent via unix domain sockets. Use the following URL scheme: PROTOCOL://unix:SOCKET:PATH.
PROTOCOL - http or https (optional)SOCKET - Absolute path to a unix domain socket, for example: /var/run/docker.sockPATH - Request path, for example: /v2/keysconst got = require('got');
got('http://unix:/var/run/docker.sock:/containers/json');
// Or without protocol (HTTP by default)
got('unix:/var/run/docker.sock:/containers/json');
Requests to AWS services need to have their headers signed. This can be accomplished by using the aws4 package. This is an example for querying an "API Gateway" with a signed request.
const got = require('got');
const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const aws4 = require('aws4');
const chain = new AWS.CredentialProviderChain();
// Create a Got instance to use relative paths and signed requests
const awsClient = got.extend({
prefixUrl: 'https://<api-id>.execute-api.<api-region>.amazonaws.com/<stage>/',
hooks: {
beforeRequest: [
async options => {
const credentials = await chain.resolvePromise();
aws4.sign(options, credentials);
}
]
}
});
const response = await awsClient('endpoint/path', {
// Request-specific options
});
You can test your requests by using the nock package to mock an endpoint:
const got = require('got');
const nock = require('nock');
nock('https://sindresorhus.com')
.get('/')
.reply(200, 'Hello world!');
(async () => {
const response = await got('https://sindresorhus.com');
console.log(response.body);
//=> 'Hello world!'
})();
For real integration testing we recommend using ava with create-test-server. We're using a macro so we don't have to server.listen() and server.close() every test. Take a look at one of our tests:
test('retry function gets iteration count', withServer, async (t, server, got) => {
let knocks = 0;
server.get('/', (request, response) => {
if (knocks++ === 1) {
response.end('who`s there?');
}
});
await got({
retry: {
calculateDelay: ({attemptCount}) => {
t.true(is.number(attemptCount));
return attemptCount < 2 ? 1 : 0;
}
}
});
});
To pass an object as the body, you need to use the json option. It will be stringified using JSON.stringify. Example:
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
const {body} = await got.post('https://httpbin.org/anything', {
json: {
hello: 'world'
},
responseType: 'json'
});
console.log(body.data);
//=> '{"hello":"world"}'
})();
To receive a JSON body you can either set responseType option to json or use promise.json(). Example:
const got = require('got');
(async () => {
const body = await got.post('https://httpbin.org/anything', {
json: {
hello: 'world'
}
}).json();
console.log(body);
//=> {…}
})();
It's a good idea to set the 'user-agent' header so the provider can more easily see how their resource is used. By default, it's the URL to this repo. You can omit this header by setting it to undefined.
const got = require('got');
const pkg = require('./package.json');
got('https://sindresorhus.com', {
headers: {
'user-agent': `my-package/${pkg.version} (https://github.com/username/my-package)`
}
});
got('https://sindresorhus.com', {
headers: {
'user-agent': undefined
}
});
Bear in mind; if you send an if-modified-since header and receive a 304 Not Modified response, the body will be empty. It's your responsibility to cache and retrieve the body contents.
Use got.extend() to make it nicer to work with REST APIs. Especially if you use the prefixUrl option.
const got = require('got');
const pkg = require('./package.json');
const custom = got.extend({
prefixUrl: 'example.com',
responseType: 'json',
headers: {
'user-agent': `my-package/${pkg.version} (https://github.com/username/my-package)`
}
});
// Use `custom` exactly how you use `got`
(async () => {
const list = await custom('v1/users/list');
})();
Got was created because the popular request package is bloated:
Furthermore, Got is fully written in TypeScript and actively maintained.
The Electron net module is not consistent with the Node.js http module. See #899 for more info.
got | request | node-fetch | ky | axios | superagent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP/2 support | :sparkle: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark:** |
| Browser support | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark:* | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Promise API | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Stream API | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | Node.js only | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Pagination API | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: |
| Request cancelation | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| RFC compliant caching | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: |
| Cookies (out-of-box) | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: |
| Follows redirects | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Retries on failure | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Progress events | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark:*** | Browser only | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Handles gzip/deflate | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Advanced timeouts | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: |
| Timings | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: |
| Errors with metadata | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: |
| JSON mode | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Custom defaults | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: |
| Composable | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: |
| Hooks | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :heavy_check_mark: | :heavy_check_mark: | :x: |
| Issues open | ||||||
| Issues closed | ||||||
| Downloads | ||||||
| Coverage | ||||||
| Build | ||||||
| Bugs | ||||||
| Dependents | ||||||
| Install size |
* It's almost API compatible with the browser fetch API.
** Need to switch the protocol manually. Doesn't accept PUSH streams and doesn't reuse HTTP/2 sessions.
*** Currently, only DownloadProgress event is supported, UploadProgress event is not supported.
:sparkle: Almost-stable feature, but the API may change. Don't hestitate to try it out!
:grey_question: Feature in early stage of development. Very experimental.
Click here to see the install size of the Got dependencies.
fetch interface |  |
|---|---|
| Sindre Sorhus | Szymon Marczak |
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FAQs
Human-friendly and powerful HTTP request library for Node.js
The npm package got receives a total of 8,395,162 weekly downloads. As such, got popularity was classified as popular.
We found that got demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 2 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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