@orkestrel/websocket

A dependency-light RFC 6455 WebSocket for Node — native handshake and framing over duplex streams, with a typed emitter surface. Part of the @orkestrel line. Its sole runtime dependency is @orkestrel/emitter, used for the typed emitter every connection exposes.

Install

npm install @orkestrel/websocket

Requirements

• Node.js >= 24
• Ships dual ESM + CommonJS builds (see exports in package.json)
• Server-only — a single Node-native surface

Usage

import { createServer } from 'node:http'
import { createNodeWebSocket } from '@orkestrel/websocket'

// A node:http server hands every upgrade request a raw socket; this wrapper takes it
// from there. Passing the client's `sec-websocket-key` selects SERVER mode — the
// wrapper writes the 101 handshake, marks the connection open, and decodes frames.
createServer().on('upgrade', (request, socket, head) => {
	const ws = createNodeWebSocket({
		socket,
		key: request.headers['sec-websocket-key'], // present => server mode + 101 handshake
		head, // any bytes that arrived bundled with the upgrade request
		on: { message: (text) => ws.send(`echo: ${text}`) }, // wire listeners at construction
	})

	ws.emitter.on('close', (code, reason) => console.log('closed', code, reason))
})

Guide

The full API — factories, the NodeWebSocket class, the pure codec helpers, constants, and types — is documented in guides/src/websocket.md.

Package

Published as a single Node-only surface per the exports field in package.json — one . entry backed by dual ESM (.js) and CommonJS (.cjs) builds of src/server.

License

MIT © Orkestrel — see LICENSE.