phin

What is phin?

The phin npm package is a lightweight HTTP client designed for simplicity and minimalism. It is used for making HTTP requests from Node.js environments. It supports promises and can handle various types of requests such as GET, POST, and more.

What are phin's main functionalities?

Simple HTTP GET requests

This code sample demonstrates how to perform a simple HTTP GET request to a specified URL using phin.

const phin = require('phin')

phin('https://example.com', (err, res) => {
  if (err) throw err
  console.log(res.body)
})

HTTP POST requests with JSON

This code sample shows how to perform an HTTP POST request with JSON data using phin.

const phin = require('phin')

const options = {
  url: 'https://example.com/post',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  data: { key: 'value' }
}

phin(options, (err, res) => {
  if (err) throw err
  console.log(res.body)
})

Promisified HTTP requests

This code sample illustrates how to use phin with promises to make asynchronous HTTP requests.

const phin = require('phin').promisified

async function makeRequest() {
  try {
    const res = await phin('https://example.com')
    console.log(res.body)
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err)
  }
}

makeRequest()

Other packages similar to phin

axios

Axios is a popular HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. It supports promises by default and has a wide range of features including interceptors, automatic transforms for JSON data, and client-side protection against XSRF. It is more feature-rich compared to phin but also larger in size.

got

Got is another HTTP request library for Node.js that is designed to be more user-friendly and powerful than the built-in http module. It supports streams, advanced timeout handling, and instances with custom defaults. It is more comprehensive than phin but also more complex.

node-fetch

node-fetch is a light-weight module that brings the Fetch API to Node.js. It aims to provide a consistent API with the browser's fetch function. It is similar to phin in terms of simplicity but follows the Fetch API standards.

superagent

Superagent is a small progressive client-side HTTP request library. It has a fluent API that allows chaining of methods to configure requests, and it can be extended with plugins. It is more feature-rich than phin and has a different API design focused on chaining methods.

README

---

The ultra-lightweight Node.js HTTP client

Full documentation | GitHub | NPM

Simple Usage

const p = require('phin')

const res = await p('https://ethanent.me')

console.log(res.body)

Note that the above should be in an async context! phin also provides an unpromisified version of the library.

Install

npm install phin

Why phin?

phin is trusted by some really important projects. The hundreds of contributors at Less, for example, depend on phin as part of their development process.

Also, phin is super lightweight. Like 99.8% smaller than request lightweight. To compare to other libraries, see phin vs. the Competition.

Quick Demos

Simple POST:

await p({
	url: 'https://ethanent.me',
	method: 'POST',
	data: {
		hey: 'hi'
	}
})

Unpromisified Usage

const p = require('phin').unpromisified

p('https://ethanent.me', (err, res) => {
	if (!err) console.log(res.body)
})

Simple parsing of JSON:

// (In async function in this case.)

const res = await p({
	'url': 'https://ethanent.me/name',
	'parse': 'json'
})

console.log(res.body.first)

Default Options

const ppostjson = p.defaults({
	'method': 'POST',
	'parse': 'json',
	'timeout': 2000
})

// In async function...

const res = await ppostjson('https://ethanent.me/somejson')
// ^ An options object could also be used here to set other options.

// Do things with res.body?

Custom Core HTTP Options

phin allows you to set core HTTP options.

await p({
	'url': 'https://ethanent.me/name',
	'core': {
		'agent': myAgent // Assuming you'd already created myAgent earlier.
	}
})

Full Documentation

There's a lot more which can be done with the phin library.

See the phin documentation.

phin vs. the Competition

phin is a very lightweight library, yet it contains all of the common HTTP client features included in competing libraries!

Here's a size comparison table:

Package	Size
request
superagent
isomorphic-fetch
axios
got
r2
node-fetch
snekfetch
phin