ani-client

A fully typed, zero-dependency client for the AniList GraphQL API.
Supports Node.js, Bun, Deno, and modern browsers.

📌 Note – thanks for 1K+ downloads this month on npm 🎉

Features

• Zero dependencies — uses the native fetch API
• Universal — Node.js ≥ 20, Bun, Deno, and modern browsers
• Dual format — ships ESM + CJS with full .d.ts declarations
• LRU cache with TTL, stale-while-revalidate, and hit/miss stats
• Rate-limit protection with exponential backoff, retries, and custom strategies
• Request deduplication — concurrent identical queries share a single in-flight request
• Batch queries — fetch up to 50 media, characters, or staff in a single API call
• Auto-pagination — async iterator that yields items across all pages
• AbortSignal support — cancel globally or per-request via withSignal()
• Injectable logger — plug in console, pino, winston, or any compatible logger
• Redis-ready — swap the in-memory cache with the built-in RedisCache adapter

Installation

npm install ani-client
# pnpm
pnpm add ani-client
# yarn
yarn add ani-client

Quick Start

import { AniListClient, MediaType } from "ani-client";

const client = new AniListClient();

// Fetch an anime by AniList ID
const bebop = await client.getMedia(1);
console.log(bebop.title.romaji); // "Cowboy Bebop"

// Search with filters
const results = await client.searchMedia({
  query: "Naruto",
  type: MediaType.ANIME,
  genres: ["Action"],
  perPage: 10,
});

// Lookup by MyAnimeList ID
const fma = await client.getMediaByMalId(5114);

Usage

Caching

The client caches every response in memory by default. You can tune TTL, capacity, and enable stale-while-revalidate:

const client = new AniListClient({
  cache: {
    ttl: 1000 * 60 * 5,            // 5 min TTL
    maxSize: 200,                   // LRU capacity
    staleWhileRevalidateMs: 60_000, // serve stale for 1 min after expiry
  },
});

console.log(client.cacheStats);
// { hits: 42, misses: 8, stales: 2, hitRate: 0.84 }

For distributed setups, swap to the built-in Redis adapter:

import { AniListClient, RedisCache } from "ani-client";
import { createClient } from "redis";

const redis = createClient();
await redis.connect();

const client = new AniListClient({
  cacheAdapter: new RedisCache(redis),
});

Rate Limiting

The client is pre-configured to stay within AniList's 30 req/min limit. You can override the defaults and provide a custom retry strategy:

const client = new AniListClient({
  rateLimit: {
    maxRequests: 25,
    windowMs: 60_000,
    maxRetries: 3,
    retryOnNetworkError: true,
    retryStrategy: (attempt) => (attempt + 1) * 1000, // linear backoff
  },
});

// Inspect the rate limit state after any request
console.log(client.rateLimitInfo);
// { remaining: 22, limit: 25, reset: 1741104000 }

Batch Requests

Fetch multiple entries in a single API call (chunks of 50):

const anime = await client.getMediaBatch([1, 5, 6, 20]);
const characters = await client.getCharacterBatch([1, 2, 3]);
const staff = await client.getStaffBatch([95269, 95270]);

Auto-Pagination

Use the built-in async iterator to walk through all pages automatically:

for await (const anime of client.paginate(
  (page) => client.searchMedia({ query: "Gundam", page, perPage: 50 }),
  5, // max 5 pages
)) {
  console.log(anime.title.romaji);
}

Request Cancellation

Scope any client instance to an AbortSignal for per-request cancellation:

const controller = new AbortController();
const scoped = client.withSignal(controller.signal);

setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 3_000);
const anime = await scoped.getMedia(1); // cancelled after 3s

Logging

Pass any console-compatible logger to trace requests and cache events:

const client = new AniListClient({ logger: console });
// debug: "API request"    { variables: { id: 1 } }
// debug: "Request complete" { durationMs: 120 }

Media Relationships

Paginated access to a media's characters and staff:

const characters = await client.getMediaCharacters(1, {
  page: 1,
  perPage: 25,
  voiceActors: true,
});

const staff = await client.getMediaStaff(1, { page: 1, perPage: 25 });

Users, Characters, Studios & More

const user     = await client.getUser("AniList");
const favs     = await client.getUserFavorites("AniList", { perPage: 50 });
const char     = await client.getCharacter(1, { voiceActors: true });
const studio   = await client.getStudio(21, { media: { perPage: 50 } });
const schedule = await client.getWeeklySchedule();
const review   = await client.getReview(760);

Error Handling

All API errors throw an AniListError with a status code and the raw GraphQL errors array:

import { AniListError } from "ani-client";

try {
  await client.getMedia(999999999);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof AniListError) {
    console.error(e.message); // "Not Found"
    console.error(e.status);  // 404
    console.error(e.errors);  // raw GraphQL errors array
  }
}

Lifecycle Hooks

Intercept requests, responses, cache events, and errors:

const client = new AniListClient({
  hooks: {
    onRequest:    (query, variables) => console.log("→", variables),
    onResponse:   (query, durationMs, fromCache) => console.log(`← ${durationMs}ms`),
    onCacheHit:   (key) => console.log("cache hit", key),
    onRateLimit:  (retryAfterMs) => console.warn(`rate limited, retrying in ${retryAfterMs}ms`),
    onError:      (error) => console.error(error.message),
  },
});

Requirements

| Runtime | Version | |----------|--------------------| | Node.js | ≥ 20 | | Bun | ≥ 1.0 | | Deno | ≥ 1.28 | | Browsers | fetch + AbortController required |

Documentation

Full API reference, configuration options, and guides (caching, pagination, hooks, Redis, etc.):

ani-client.js.org

Community

• 💬 Discord server
• ✨ Showcase — see who's using ani-client

Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

Before opening an issue or a pull request, please read:

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• SECURITY.md

This repository also includes GitHub issue templates and a pull request template to help keep reports and contributions consistent.

License

MIT © gonzyui