High Performance Network Caching for Node.js with fetch support and HTTP cache semantics

Features:

• fetch from undici with caching enabled via cacheable
• HTTP method helpers: get, post, put, patch, delete, and head for easier development
• RFC 7234 compliant HTTP caching with http-cache-semantics
• Smart caching with automatic cache key generation
• Support for custom serialization/deserialization with stringify and parse functions
• Configurable cache policies - use HTTP cache semantics or simple TTL-based caching
• Full TypeScript support with comprehensive type definitions
• Request-level cache control with the caching option
• All the features of cacheable - layered caching, LRU, TTL expiration, and more!
• Extensively tested with 100% code coverage

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• How to Contribute
• License and Copyright

Getting Started

npm install @cacheable/net

Basic Usage

import { CacheableNet } from '@cacheable/net';

const net = new CacheableNet();

// Simple GET request with caching
const response = await net.get('https://api.example.com/data');
console.log(response.data);

// POST request with data
const result = await net.post('https://api.example.com/users', {
  name: 'John Doe',
  email: '[email protected]'
});

// Using fetch directly with caching
const fetchResponse = await net.fetch('https://api.example.com/data', {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer token'
  }
});

Custom Serialization

You can provide custom stringify and parse functions for handling data serialization. This is particularly useful when working with complex data types that JSON doesn't natively support:

import { CacheableNet } from '@cacheable/net';
import superjson from 'superjson';

// Using superjson for enhanced serialization
// Supports Dates, BigInt, RegExp, Set, Map, Error and more
const net = new CacheableNet({
  stringify: (value) => superjson.stringify(value),
  parse: (text) => superjson.parse(text)
});

// Now you can work with complex data types
const response = await net.post('https://api.example.com/data', {
  timestamp: new Date(),
  userId: BigInt(12345),
  pattern: /[a-z]+/gi,
  metadata: new Map([['key', 'value']]),
  tags: new Set(['important', 'urgent'])
});

// Or provide per-request custom serialization
const result = await net.get('https://api.example.com/data', {
  parse: (text) => {
    // Custom parsing with superjson for this request only
    return superjson.parse(text);
  }
});

Caching Control

You can control caching behavior at multiple levels:

import { CacheableNet } from '@cacheable/net';

const net = new CacheableNet({
  httpCachePolicy: true  // Enable HTTP cache semantics globally (default)
});

// GET requests are cached by default
const data1 = await net.get('https://api.example.com/data');

// Disable caching for a specific GET request
const data2 = await net.get('https://api.example.com/data', {
  caching: false
});

// POST requests are NOT cached by default
const result1 = await net.post('https://api.example.com/data', { value: 1 });

// Enable caching for a specific POST request
const result2 = await net.post('https://api.example.com/data', { value: 1 }, {
  caching: true
});

API Reference

CacheableNet Class

The main class that provides cached network operations.

Constructor Options

interface CacheableNetOptions {
  cache?: Cacheable | CacheableOptions;   // Cacheable instance or options
  httpCachePolicy?: boolean;              // Enable HTTP cache semantics (default: true)
  stringify?: (value: unknown) => string; // Custom JSON stringifier (default: JSON.stringify)
  parse?: (value: string) => unknown;     // Custom JSON parser (default: JSON.parse)
}

Methods

All methods accept request options of type FetchOptions (excluding the cache property which is managed internally):

• fetch(url: string, options?: FetchOptions): Fetch with caching support
• get(url: string, options?: NetFetchOptions): GET request helper with caching control
• post(url: string, data?: unknown, options?: NetFetchOptions): POST request helper with caching control
• put(url: string, data?: unknown, options?: NetFetchOptions): PUT request helper with caching control
• patch(url: string, data?: unknown, options?: NetFetchOptions): PATCH request helper with caching control
• delete(url: string, data?: unknown, options?: NetFetchOptions): DELETE request helper with caching control
• head(url: string, options?: NetFetchOptions): HEAD request helper with caching control

The FetchOptions type extends the standard fetch RequestInit options with additional caching controls:

type FetchOptions = Omit<RequestInit, 'cache'> & {
  cache?: Cacheable;          // Optional cache instance (if not provided, no caching)
  httpCachePolicy?: boolean;     // Override instance-level HTTP cache setting
};

The NetFetchOptions type (used by all HTTP method helpers) provides additional control:

type NetFetchOptions = {
  caching?: boolean;          // Enable/disable caching for this request
  stringify?: (value: unknown) => string;  // Custom JSON stringifier
  parse?: (value: string) => unknown;      // Custom JSON parser
} & Omit<FetchOptions, 'method' | 'cache'>;

Note: When using the CacheableNet methods, you don't need to provide the cache property as it's automatically injected from the instance.

Caching Behavior

By default:

• GET and HEAD requests are cached automatically
• POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE requests are NOT cached by default
• To enable caching for POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE, set caching: true in the options
• To disable caching for GET/HEAD, set caching: false in the options

How to Contribute

You can contribute by forking the repo and submitting a pull request. Please make sure to add tests and update the documentation. To learn more about how to contribute go to our main README https://github.com/jaredwray/cacheable. This will talk about how to Open a Pull Request, Ask a Question, or Post an Issue.

License and Copyright

MIT © Jared Wray