serve-authed helps you serve a static site, single page application or just a static file (no matter if on your device or on the local network) with optional authentication support. It also provides a neat interface for listing the directory's contents:

Once it's time to push your site to production, we recommend using Vercel.

Note: This is a fork of the original serve package by Vercel, with added authentication capabilities.

Usage

serve-authed v14 onwards requires Node v14 to run. Please use serve-authed v13 if you cannot upgrade to Node v14.

The quickest way to get started is to just run npx serve-authed in your project's directory.

If you prefer, you can also install the package globally (you'll need at least Node LTS):

> npm install --global serve-authed

Once that's done, you can run this command inside your project's directory...

> serve-authed

...or specify which folder you want to serve:

> serve-authed folder-name/

Finally, run this command to see a list of all available options:

> serve-authed --help

Now you understand how the package works! :tada:

Authentication

serve-authed supports optional token-based authentication to protect your files. When enabled, all requests must include a valid authentication token.

Basic Usage

To enable authentication, use the --token (or -t) flag:

> serve-authed --token YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN

Providing the Token

Clients can authenticate using one of two methods:

1. Authorization Header (recommended):

curl -H "Authorization: YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN" http://localhost:3000
# or with Bearer prefix
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN" http://localhost:3000

2. Query Parameter:

curl http://localhost:3000?authentication=YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN

Example

# Start server with authentication
> serve-authed --token mySecretToken123

# Access from browser or API client
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer mySecretToken123" http://localhost:3000/index.html

Unauthenticated requests will receive a 403 Forbidden response.

Configuration

To customize serve-authed's behavior, create a serve.json file in the public folder and insert any of these properties.

API

The core of serve-authed is serve-handler, which can be used as middleware in existing HTTP servers:

const handler = require('serve-handler');
const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer((request, response) => {
  // You pass two more arguments for config and middleware
  // More details here: https://github.com/vercel/serve-handler#options
  return handler(request, response);
});

server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Running at http://localhost:3000');
});

You can also replace http.createServer with micro.

Issues and Contributing

If you want a feature to be added, or wish to report a bug, please open an issue here.

If you wish to contribute to the project, please read the contributing guide first.

Credits

This project is a fork of the original serve package by Vercel.

The original project used to be called list and micro-list. But thanks to TJ Holowaychuk handing the name to Vercel, it's now called serve (which is much more definite).

Original Author

Leo Lamprecht (@leo)