> Simplified HTTP requests [](https://travis-ci.org/sindresorhus/got) [](https://coveralls.io/github/sindresorhus/got?branch=master) [](https://npmjs.com/got) A nicer interface to the built-in [`http`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html) module. Created because [`request`](https://github.com/request/request) is bloated *(several megabytes!)*. ## Highlights - [Promise & stream API](#api) - [Request cancelation](#aborting-the-request) - [Follows redirects](#followredirect) - [Retries on network failure](#retries) - [Handles gzip/deflate](#decompress) - [Timeout handling](#timeout) - [Errors with metadata](#errors) - [JSON mode](#json) - [WHATWG URL support](#url) - [Electron support](#useelectronnet) ## Install ``` $ npm install --save got ``` ## Usage ```js const fs = require('fs'); const got = require('got'); got('todomvc.com') .then(response => { console.log(response.body); //=> ' ...' }) .catch(error => { console.log(error.response.body); //=> 'Internal server error ...' }); // Streams got.stream('todomvc.com').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('index.html')); // For POST, PUT and PATCH methods got.stream returns a WritableStream fs.createReadStream('index.html').pipe(got.stream.post('todomvc.com')); ``` ### API It's a `GET` request by default, but can be changed in `options`. #### got(url, [options]) Returns a Promise for a `response` object with a `body` property, a `url` property with the request URL or the final URL after redirects, and a `requestUrl` property with the original request URL. ##### url Type: `string` `Object` The URL to request as simple string, a [`http.request` options](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback), or a [WHATWG `URL`](https://nodejs.org/api/url.html#url_class_url). Properties from `options` will override properties in the parsed `url`. ##### options Type: `Object` Any of the [`http.request`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback) options. ###### body Type: `string` `Buffer` `stream.Readable` *This is mutually exclusive with stream mode.* Body that will be sent with a `POST` request. If present in `options` and `options.method` is not set, `options.method` will be set to `POST`. If `content-length` or `transfer-encoding` is not set in `options.headers` and `body` is a string or buffer, `content-length` will be set to the body length. ###### encoding Type: `string` `null`
Default: `'utf8'` [Encoding](https://nodejs.org/api/buffer.html#buffer_buffers_and_character_encodings) to be used on `setEncoding` of the response data. If `null`, the body is returned as a Buffer. ###### form Type: `boolean`
Default: `false` *This is mutually exclusive with stream mode.* If set to `true` and `Content-Type` header is not set, it will be set to `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`. `body` must be a plain object or array and will be stringified. ###### json Type: `boolean`
Default: `false` *This is mutually exclusive with stream mode.* If set to `true` and `Content-Type` header is not set, it will be set to `application/json`. Parse response body with `JSON.parse` and set `accept` header to `application/json`. If used in conjunction with the `form` option, the `body` will the stringified as querystring and the response parsed as JSON. `body` must be a plain object or array and will be stringified. ###### query Type: `string` `Object`
Query string object that will be added to the request URL. This will override the query string in `url`. ###### timeout Type: `number` `Object` Milliseconds to wait for the server to end the response before aborting request with `ETIMEDOUT` error. This also accepts an object with separate `connect`, `socket`, and `request` fields for connection, socket, and entire request timeouts. ###### retries Type: `number` `Function`
Default: `2` Number of request retries when network errors happens. Delays between retries counts with function `1000 * Math.pow(2, retry) + Math.random() * 100`, where `retry` is attempt number (starts from 0). Option accepts `function` with `retry` and `error` arguments. Function must return delay in milliseconds (`0` return value cancels retry). **Note:** if `retries` is `number`, `ENOTFOUND` and `ENETUNREACH` error will not be retried (see full list in [`is-retry-allowed`](https://github.com/floatdrop/is-retry-allowed/blob/master/index.js#L12) module). ###### followRedirect 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](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-6.4.4). ###### decompress Type: `boolean`
Default: `true` Decompress the response automatically. 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. ###### useElectronNet Type: `boolean`
Default: `true` When used in Electron, Got will automatically use [`electron.net`](https://electron.atom.io/docs/api/net/) instead of the Node.js `http` module. It should be fully compatible, but you can turn it off here if you encounter a problem. Please open an issue if you do! #### Streams #### got.stream(url, [options]) `stream` method will return Duplex stream with additional events: ##### .on('request', request) `request` event to get the request object of the request. **Tip**: You can use `request` event to abort request: ```js got.stream('github.com') .on('request', req => setTimeout(() => req.abort(), 50)); ``` ##### .on('response', response) `response` event to get the response object of the final request. ##### .on('redirect', response, nextOptions) `redirect` event to get the response object of a redirect. The second argument is options for the next request to the redirect location. ##### .on('error', error, body, response) `error` event emitted in case of protocol error (like `ENOTFOUND` etc.) or status error (4xx or 5xx). The second argument is the body of the server response in case of status error. The third argument is response object. #### got.get(url, [options]) #### got.post(url, [options]) #### got.put(url, [options]) #### got.patch(url, [options]) #### got.head(url, [options]) #### got.delete(url, [options]) Sets `options.method` to the method name and makes a request. ## Errors Each error contains (if available) `statusCode`, `statusMessage`, `host`, `hostname`, `method`, `path`, `protocol` and `url` properties to make debugging easier. In Promise mode, the `response` is attached to the error. #### got.RequestError When a request fails. Contains a `code` property with error class code, like `ECONNREFUSED`. #### got.ReadError When reading from response stream fails. #### got.ParseError When `json` option is enabled, server response code is 2xx, and `JSON.parse` fails. #### got.HTTPError When server response code is not 2xx. Includes `statusCode`, `statusMessage`, and `redirectUrls` properties. #### got.MaxRedirectsError When server redirects you more than 10 times. Includes a `redirectUrls` property, which is an array of the URLs Got was redirected to before giving up. #### got.UnsupportedProtocolError When given an unsupported protocol. ## Aborting the request The promise returned by Got has a `.cancel()` function which, when called, aborts the request. ## Proxies You can use the [`tunnel`](https://github.com/koichik/node-tunnel) module with the `agent` option to work with proxies: ```js const got = require('got'); const tunnel = require('tunnel'); got('todomvc.com', { agent: tunnel.httpOverHttp({ proxy: { host: 'localhost' } }) }); ``` ## Cookies You can use the [`cookie`](https://github.com/jshttp/cookie) module to include cookies in a request: ```js const got = require('got'); const cookie = require('cookie'); got('google.com', { headers: { cookie: cookie.serialize('foo', 'bar') } }); ``` ## Form data You can use the [`form-data`](https://github.com/form-data/form-data) module to create POST request with form data: ```js 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('google.com', { body: form }); ``` ## OAuth You can use the [`oauth-1.0a`](https://github.com/ddo/oauth-1.0a) module to create a signed OAuth request: ```js 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)), json: true }); ``` ## Unix Domain Sockets Requests can also be sent via [unix domain sockets](http://serverfault.com/questions/124517/whats-the-difference-between-unix-socket-and-tcp-ip-socket). Use the following URL scheme: `PROTOCOL://unix:SOCKET:PATH`. - `PROTOCOL` - `http` or `https` *(optional)* - `SOCKET` - absolute path to a unix domain socket, e.g. `/var/run/docker.sock` - `PATH` - request path, e.g. `/v2/keys` ```js got('http://unix:/var/run/docker.sock:/containers/json'); // or without protocol (http by default) got('unix:/var/run/docker.sock:/containers/json'); ``` ## AWS Requests to AWS services need to have their headers signed. This can be accomplished by using the [`aws4`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/aws4) package. This is an example for querying an ["Elasticsearch Service"](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticsearch-service/) host with a signed request. ```js const url = require('url'); const AWS = require('aws-sdk'); const aws4 = require('aws4'); const got = require('got'); const config = require('./config'); // Reads keys from the environment or `~/.aws/credentials`. Could be a plain object. const awsConfig = new AWS.Config({ region: config.region }); function request(uri, options) { const awsOpts = { region: awsConfig.region, headers: { accept: 'application/json', 'content-type': 'application/json' }, method: 'GET', json: true }; // We need to parse the URL before passing it to `got` so `aws4` can sign the request const opts = Object.assign(url.parse(uri), awsOpts, options); aws4.sign(opts, awsConfig.credentials); return got(opts); } request(`https://${config.host}/production/users/1`); request(`https://${config.host}/production/`, { // All usual `got` options }); ``` ## Tips ### User Agent 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. ```js const got = require('got'); const pkg = require('./package.json'); got('todomvc.com', { headers: { 'user-agent': `my-module/${pkg.version} (https://github.com/username/my-module)` } }); ``` ### 304 Responses 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. ## Related - [gh-got](https://github.com/sindresorhus/gh-got) - Convenience wrapper for interacting with the GitHub API - [travis-got](https://github.com/samverschueren/travis-got) - Convenience wrapper for interacting with the Travis API ## Created by [](https://sindresorhus.com) | [](https://github.com/floatdrop) | [](https://alextes.me) ---|---|--- [Sindre Sorhus](https://sindresorhus.com) | [Vsevolod Strukchinsky](https://github.com/floatdrop) | [Alexander Tesfamichael](https://alextes.me) ## License MIT