An elegant HTTP listener.

• Promisified interface for listening and closing server
• Work with express/connect or plain http handle function
• Support HTTP and HTTPS
• Assign a port or fallback to human friendly alternative (with get-port-please)
• Generate listening URL and show on console
• Copy URL to clipboard (dev only by default)
• Open URL in browser (opt-in)
• Generate self-signed certificate
• Detect test and production environments
• Close on exit signal
• Gracefully shutdown server with http-shutdown

Install using npm:

npm i listhen

Import into your Node.js project:

// CommonJS
const { listen } = require('listhen')

// ESM
import { listen } from 'listhen'

Function signature:

const { url, getURL, server, close } = await listen(handle, options?)

Plain handle function:

listen((_req, res) => {
  res.end('hi')
})

With express/connect:

const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.use('/', ((_req, res) => {
  res.end('hi')
})

listen(app)

• Default: process.env.PORT or 3000 or memorized random (see get-port-please)

Port to listen.

• Default: process.env.HOST || '0.0.0.0'

Default hostname to listen.

• Type: Boolean | Object
• Default: false

Listen on https with SSL enabled.

By setting https: true, listhen will use an auto generated self-signed certificate.

You can set https to an object for custom options. Possible options:

• domains: (Array) Default is ['localhost', '127.0.0.1', '::1'].
• validityDays: (Number) Default is 1.

Set https: { cert, key } where cert and key are path to the ssl certificates.

You can also provide inline cert and key instead of reading from filesystem. In this case, they should start with --.

• Default: true (force disabled on test environment)

Show a CLI message for listening URL.

• Default: /

• Default: false (force disabled on test and production environments)

Open URL in browser. Silently ignores errors.

• Default: false (force disabled on test and production environments)

Copy URL to clipboard. Silently ignores errors.

• Default: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test'

Detect if running in a test environment to disable some features.

• Default: true

Automatically close when an exit signal is received on process.

MIT. Made with 💖