Got (HTTP client)

Got (HTTP client)
Name	Got
Author	Sindre Sorhus
Initial release	2012
Programming language	JavaScript
Platform	Node.js
License	MIT License
Repository	GitHub

Got (HTTP client) is a JavaScript HTTP request library for Node.js created to replace older modules such as request and to serve developers targeting platforms like Electron and Next.js. It emphasizes modern JavaScript features, promise-based control flow, high performance, and a compact API suitable for projects maintained by individuals and organizations such as Sindre Sorhus's ecosystem and contributors from the Open Source community. Got integrates with surrounding toolchains like npm and Yarn, and is often compared to alternatives used by teams at Google, Facebook, and Microsoft in server-side JavaScript tooling discussions.

Overview

Got originated in the broader movement to modernize HTTP clients in the Node.js ecosystem after the deprecation of modules favored by projects including Express (web framework), Koa (web framework), and Hapi (software). Its design reflects lessons from authors and projects such as Sindre Sorhus, TJ Holowaychuk, and repositories hosted on GitHub that influenced patterns adopted by libraries like axios and node-fetch. The package targets environments including Node.js LTS releases, continuous integration platforms like Travis CI, GitHub Actions, and deployment targets used by companies such as Vercel and Netlify.

Key maintainers and contributors have coordinated via issue trackers and pull requests on GitHub and discussions in communities like Stack Overflow and Reddit (website), with usage reported in projects ranging from startups to research initiatives at institutions such as MIT and Stanford University.

Features

Got provides features designed for modern web and microservice development. It natively supports promises and async/await patterns popularized in ECMAScript editions, and includes convenience for use with frameworks such as Express (web framework), Koa (web framework), and Fastify. Advanced features include retries and timeout strategies inspired by resilience patterns used at Netflix and Amazon Web Services, hooks for request lifecycle management similar to middleware concepts in Ruby on Rails and Django (web framework), and support for streaming compatible with Node streams used in projects like gulp and webpack.

Other notable attributes are HTTP/1.1 connection pooling comparable to optimizations in nginx, support for TLS configuration adopted by services integrating with Let's Encrypt and Cloudflare, redirect handling like that in curl, and extensibility through plugins resembling patterns in Babel (toolchain) and ESLint. Authentication flows and token handling align with practices recommended by standards bodies such as IETF and organizations like OAuth Working Group.

Usage and API

Got exposes an imperative API with methods that map to HTTP verbs, drawing conceptual parallels to interfaces seen in axios and Fetch API. Typical usage involves import from npm package registries and invocation within async functions used by applications built with Next.js, command-line tools created with Yeoman, or backend services deployed on Heroku.

Code examples often show basic GET requests returning parsed JSON, error handling compatible with V8 stack traces, and stream-based pipelines integrated into build tools used by teams at Mozilla and Microsoft Edge. Got's options accept headers and agent configuration mirroring patterns from http.Agent in Node.js core and follow conventions from standards like RFC 7231 for semantics. Advanced API hooks allow per-request transformations and integrations with observability stacks employed by Datadog, New Relic, and Prometheus.

Performance and Benchmarks

Benchmarking of HTTP clients in Node.js projects typically compares latency, throughput, and resource usage across libraries such as axios, node-fetch, undici (HTTP client), and low-level cores like http2 implementations. Got historically aimed to be competitive by minimizing overhead in request lifecycle and leveraging native stream mechanics used by Node.js core. Third-party comparisons hosted on GitHub and blog posts from engineering teams at Vercel and Cloudflare have examined trade-offs between feature-rich clients and minimal, high-throughput clients like undici.

In production workloads at scale—e.g., services at Amazon-sized traffic—users choose between richer middleware capabilities and raw throughput; Got sits toward the feature-rich end while maintaining acceptable performance on modern LTS Node.js releases. Profiling with tools from Chrome DevTools and tracing systems from Jaeger often informs tuning of agent pooling and concurrency parameters used in Got-based services.

Compatibility and Ecosystem

Got integrates into the broader JavaScript ecosystem, interoperating with package managers such as npm and pnpm, bundlers like Webpack and Rollup (software), and server platforms such as Fastify, Express (web framework), and Hapi (software). Community-created adapters and typings for TypeScript enable use in strongly typed codebases at enterprises including IBM and SAP. Continuous integration configurations for CircleCI and GitHub Actions commonly run test suites that exercise Got-based network calls via mocking libraries influenced by Sinon (library) and nock.

Ecosystem extensions include middleware-style hooks, serialization helpers for formats used by GraphQL servers at Apollo (company), and integrations with cloud SDKs from AWS and Google Cloud Platform in hybrid architectures.

Development and Maintenance

Development occurs openly on GitHub with contributions from individual maintainers and corporate engineers. The project follows semantic versioning conventions used by many npm packages and publishes changelogs similar to practices from Keep a Changelog posts maintained by projects like React (JavaScript library) and Vue.js. Tests run across Node.js LTS versions with automated coverage reporting and issue triage patterns reminiscent of major open source projects hosted on GitHub.

Governance typically reflects small-team stewardship supplemented by community contributions and occasional sponsorship from companies that rely on the library within their stacks. Security advisories and dependency updates echo practices used by ecosystems guided by organizations such as OpenSSF and Linux Foundation.

Category:JavaScript libraries