Why generate-certs? 🤔

• 🔐 Automatic Certificate Generation – Creates valid self-signed certificates for localhost.
• 🔁 Reusability – Automatically detects and reuses existing certs if they exist.
• 🧪 Development-Ready – Ideal for testing HTTPS locally without browser complaints.
• 💡 Minimal Setup – No OpenSSL or third-party installations required.
• 🧩 Framework Friendly – Easily integrates with Express, NestJS, and other Node.js frameworks.

Installation 🔥

npm install -D generate-certs@latest
# or
yarn add -D generate-certs@latest
# or
pnpm install -D generate-certs@latest
# or
bun add -d generate-certs@latest

Usage 🪛

Basic Example 🐣

import path from "node:path";
import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
import { generateCerts } from "generate-certs";

// If you are using ESM do the following, otherwise you can skip this part
const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
const certs = generateCerts({ certsPath: path.resolve(__dirname, "../certs") });

Express 📫

import https from "node:https";
import path from "node:path";
import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
import { generateCerts } from "generate-certs";
import express from "express";
import { env } from "./env";

const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
const certs = generateCerts({ certsPath: path.resolve(__dirname, "../certs") });

function bootstrap() {
  const app = express();

  https.createServer(certs, app).listen(env.PORT || 3443, () => {
    console.log(`🚀 Express server running on: https://localhost:${env.PORT || 3443}`);
  });
}

bootstrap();

NestJS 🪺

import path from "node:path";
import { NestFactory } from "@nestjs/core";
import { generateCerts } from "generate-certs";
import { AppModule } from "./app.module";
import { env } from "./env";

// NestJS commonly uses CommonJS, so you can skip the ESM import part
const certs = generateCerts({ certsPath: path.resolve(__dirname, "../certs") });

async function bootstrap() {
  const app = await NestFactory.create(AppModule, {
    httpsOptions: certs,
  });

  await app.listen(env.SERVER_PORT || 3443);
  console.log(`🚀 NestJS server running on: https://localhost:${env.SERVER_PORT || 3443}`);
}

bootstrap();

HonoJS 🔥

import { createSecureServer } from "node:http2";
import path from "node:path";
import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
import { serve } from "@hono/node-server";
import { generateCerts } from "generate-certs";
import { Hono } from "hono";
import { env } from "./env";

const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
const certs = generateCerts({ certsPath: path.resolve(__dirname, "../certs") });

function bootstrap() {
  const app = new Hono();

  serve(
    {
      fetch: app.fetch,
      port: env.PORT || 3443,
      createServer: createSecureServer,
      serverOptions: certs,
    },
    (info) => {
      console.log(`🚀 HonoJS server running on: https://localhost:${env.PORT || 3443}`);
    },
  );
}

bootstrap();

Fastify ⚡

import path from "node:path";
import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
import Fastify from "fastify";
import { generateCerts } from "generate-certs";
import { env } from "./env";

const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
const certs = generateCerts({ certsPath: path.resolve(__dirname, "../certs") });

async function bootstrap() {
  const app = new Fastify({ https: certs });

  await app.listen({ port: env.PORT || 3443, host: "0.0.0.0" });
  console.log(`🚀 Fastify server running on: https://localhost:${env.PORT || 3443}`);
}

bootstrap();

Notes❗

• 🧪 First-Time Run: The certs are created automatically and stored in the provided folder.
• ⚠️ Browser Warnings: You may see “Not Secure” warnings with self-signed certs — click “Advanced” → “Proceed to localhost (unsafe)” to continue.
• 🔒 Not for Production: These are local dev certificates. For production, use certs from a trusted CA (like Let's Encrypt).
• 📁 Permissions: Ensure the target folder is writable and readable by your application.

Contributions 🤝

Want to contribute or suggest a feature or improvement?

• Open an issue or feature request
• Submit a PR to improve the packages or add new ones
• Star ⭐ the repo if you like what you see