httpxy

🔀 httpxy

A Full-Featured HTTP and WebSocket Proxy for Node.js

Proxy Fetch

proxyFetch is a proxy utility with web standard (Request/Response) interfaces. It forwards requests to a specific server address (TCP host/port or Unix socket), bypassing the URL's hostname.

import { proxyFetch } from "httpxy";

// TCP — using a URL string
const res = await proxyFetch("http://127.0.0.1:3000", "http://example.com/api/data");
console.log(await res.json());

// Unix socket — using a URL string
const res2 = await proxyFetch("unix:/tmp/app.sock", "http://localhost/health");
console.log(await res2.text());

// Or use an object for more control
const res3 = await proxyFetch({ host: "127.0.0.1", port: 3000 }, "http://example.com/api/data");

// Using a Request object
const req = new Request("http://example.com/api/data", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ key: "value" }),
});
const res4 = await proxyFetch("http://127.0.0.1:3000", req);

// Using a URL string with RequestInit
const res5 = await proxyFetch("http://127.0.0.1:3000", "http://example.com/api/data", {
  method: "PUT",
  headers: { Authorization: "Bearer token" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ updated: true }),
});

It accepts the same input and init arguments as the global fetch, including Request objects and streaming bodies, and returns a standard Response. Redirects are handled manually by default.

Proxy Upgrade

proxyUpgrade is a standalone WebSocket upgrade proxy. It forwards upgrade requests to a target server without needing a ProxyServer instance — the WebSocket counterpart to proxyFetch.

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { proxyUpgrade } from "httpxy";

const server = createServer((req, res) => {
  // Handle regular HTTP requests...
});

server.on("upgrade", (req, socket, head) => {
  proxyUpgrade("http://127.0.0.1:8080", req, socket, head);
});

server.listen(3000);

It accepts the same addr formats as proxyFetch ("http://host:port", "unix:/path", or { host, port } / { socketPath }), and returns a Promise<Socket> that resolves with the upstream proxy socket once the WebSocket connection is established.

// With options
server.on("upgrade", (req, socket, head) => {
  proxyUpgrade({ host: "127.0.0.1", port: 8080 }, req, socket, head, {
    // changeOrigin: true, // rewrite Host header
    // xfwd: false, // disable x-forwarded-* headers (enabled by default)
  });
});

Proxy Server

[!NOTE] Proxy server was originally forked from http-party/node-http-proxy.

Create proxy:

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { createProxyServer } from "httpxy";

const proxy = createProxyServer({});

const server = createServer(async (req, res) => {
  try {
    await proxy.web(req, res, {
      target: address /* address of your proxy server here */,
    });
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
    res.statusCode = 500;
    res.end("Proxy error: " + error.toString());
  }
});

server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log("Proxy is listening on http://localhost:3000");
});

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
target	string | URL | ProxyTargetDetailed	—	Target server URL
forward	string | URL	—	Forward server URL (pipes request without the target's response)
agent	http.Agent | false	keep-alive	Shared keep-alive agent by default. Set false to disable connection reuse
ssl	https.ServerOptions	—	Object passed to https.createServer()
ws	boolean	false	Enable WebSocket proxying
xfwd	boolean	false	Add x-forwarded-* headers
secure	boolean	—	Verify SSL certificates
toProxy	boolean	false	Pass absolute URL as path (proxy-to-proxy)
prependPath	boolean	true	Prepend the target's path to the proxy path
ignorePath	boolean	false	Ignore the incoming request path
localAddress	string	—	Local interface to bind for outgoing connections
changeOrigin	boolean	false	Change the Host header to match the target URL
preserveHeaderKeyCase	boolean	false	Keep original letter case of response header keys
auth	string	—	Basic authentication ('user:password') for Authorization header
hostRewrite	string	—	Rewrite the Location hostname on redirects (301/302/307/308)
autoRewrite	boolean	false	Rewrite Location host/port on redirects based on the request
protocolRewrite	string	—	Rewrite Location protocol on redirects ('http' or 'https')
cookieDomainRewrite	false | string | object	false	Rewrite domain of Set-Cookie headers
cookiePathRewrite	false | string | object	false	Rewrite path of Set-Cookie headers
headers	object	—	Extra headers to add to target requests
proxyTimeout	number	120000	Timeout (ms) for the proxy request to the target
timeout	number	—	Timeout (ms) for the incoming request
selfHandleResponse	boolean	false	Disable automatic response piping (handle proxyRes yourself)
followRedirects	boolean | number	false	Follow HTTP redirects from target. true = max 5 hops; number = custom max
buffer	stream.Stream	—	Stream to use as request body instead of the incoming request

[!NOTE] Redirect rewriting (hostRewrite, autoRewrite, protocolRewrite) only applies when the Location header host matches the target host, so cross-origin redirects are never altered. A protocol-relative Location (//host/path) is kept protocol-relative when only the host is rewritten (hostRewrite/autoRewrite), so the client resolves the scheme itself. Setting protocolRewrite explicitly opts into a concrete scheme and absolutizes such values (e.g. //host/path → https://host/path).

Events

Event	Arguments	Description
error	(err, req, res, target)	An error occurred during proxying
proxyReq	(proxyReq, req, res, options)	Before request is sent to target (modify headers here)
proxyRes	(proxyRes, req, res)	Response received from target
proxyReqWs	(proxyReq, req, socket, options, head)	Before WebSocket upgrade request is sent
open	(proxySocket)	WebSocket connection opened
close	(proxyRes, proxySocket, proxyHead)	WebSocket connection closed
start	(req, res, target)	Proxy processing started
end	(req, res, proxyRes)	Proxy request completed

Examples

HTTP Proxy

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { createProxyServer } from "httpxy";

const proxy = createProxyServer({});

const server = createServer(async (req, res) => {
  await proxy.web(req, res, { target: "http://localhost:8080" });
});

server.listen(3000);

WebSocket Proxy

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { createProxyServer } from "httpxy";

const proxy = createProxyServer({ target: "http://localhost:8080", ws: true });

const server = createServer(async (req, res) => {
  await proxy.web(req, res);
});

server.on("upgrade", (req, socket, head) => {
  proxy.ws(req, socket, { target: "http://localhost:8080" }, head);
});

server.listen(3000);

Modify Request Headers

import { createServer } from "node:http";
import { createProxyServer } from "httpxy";

const proxy = createProxyServer({ target: "http://localhost:8080" });

proxy.on("proxyReq", (proxyReq) => {
  proxyReq.setHeader("X-Forwarded-By", "httpxy");
});

const server = createServer(async (req, res) => {
  await proxy.web(req, res);
});

server.listen(3000);

HTTPS Proxy

import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
import { createProxyServer } from "httpxy";

const proxy = createProxyServer({
  ssl: {
    key: readFileSync("server-key.pem", "utf8"),
    cert: readFileSync("server-cert.pem", "utf8"),
  },
  target: "https://localhost:8443",
  secure: false, // allow self-signed certificates
});

proxy.listen(3000);

Standalone Proxy Server

import { createProxyServer } from "httpxy";

const proxy = createProxyServer({
  target: "http://localhost:8080",
  changeOrigin: true,
});

proxy.listen(3000);

Development

• Clone this repository
• Install latest LTS version of Node.js
• Enable Corepack using corepack enable
• Install dependencies using pnpm install
• Run interactive tests using pnpm dev

Acknowledgements

Performance optimizations in httpxy were inspired by analysis of fast-proxy and @fastify/http-proxy.

License

Made with 💛

Published under MIT License.