Huge thanks to 
Ky is a tiny and elegant HTTP client based on the browser Fetch API
Ky targets modern browsers and Deno. For older browsers, you will need to transpile and use a fetch polyfill. For Node.js, check out Got. For isomorphic needs (like SSR), check out ky-universal.
1 KB (minified & gzipped), one file, and no dependencies.
- Simpler API
- Method shortcuts (
ky.post()) - Treats non-2xx status codes as errors
- Retries failed requests
- JSON option
- Timeout support
- URL prefix option
- Instances with custom defaults
- Hooks
$ npm install ky
import ky from 'ky';
(async () => {
const parsed = await ky.post('https://example.com', {json: {foo: true}}).json();
console.log(parsed);
//=> `{data: '🦄'}`
})();With plain fetch, it would be:
(async () => {
class HTTPError extends Error {}
const response = await fetch('https://example.com', {
method: 'POST',
body: JSON.stringify({foo: true}),
headers: {
'content-type': 'application/json'
}
});
if (!response.ok) {
throw new HTTPError('Fetch error:', response.statusText);
}
const parsed = await response.json();
console.log(parsed);
//=> `{data: '🦄'}`
})();If you are using Deno, import Ky from a URL. For example, using a CDN:
import ky from 'https://unpkg.com/ky/index.js';In environments that do not support import, you can load ky in UMD format. For example, using require():
const ky = require('ky/umd').default;With the UMD version, it's also easy to use ky without a bundler or module system.
The input and options are the same as fetch, with some exceptions:
- The
credentialsoption issame-originby default, which is the default in the spec too, but not all browsers have caught up yet. - Adds some more options. See below.
Returns a Response object with Body methods added for convenience. So you can, for example, call ky.json() directly on the Response without having to await it first. Unlike the Body methods of window.Fetch; these will throw an HTTPError if the response status is not in the range 200...299.
Sets options.method to the method name and makes a request.
Type: Object
Type: string
Default: get
HTTP method used to make the request.
Internally, the standard methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, HEAD and DELETE) are uppercased in order to avoid server errors due to case sensitivity.
Type: Object
Shortcut for sending JSON. Use this instead of the body option. Accepts a plain object which will be JSON.stringify()'d and the correct header will be set for you.
Type: string Object<string, string|number> URLSearchParams
Default: ''
Search parameters to include in the request URL. Setting this will override all existing search parameters in the input URL.
Type: string URL
When specified, prefixUrl will be prepended to input. The prefix can be any valid URL, either relative or absolute. A trailing slash / is optional, one will be added automatically, if needed, when joining prefixUrl and input. The input argument cannot start with a / when using this option.
Useful when used with ky.extend() to create niche-specific Ky-instances.
import ky from 'ky';
// On https://example.com
(async () => {
await ky('unicorn', {prefixUrl: '/api'});
//=> 'https://example.com/api/unicorn'
await ky('unicorn', {prefixUrl: 'https://cats.com'});
//=> 'https://cats.com/unicorn'
})();Type: number
Default: 2
Retry failed requests made with one of the below methods that result in a network error or one of the below status codes.
Methods: GET PUT HEAD DELETE OPTIONS TRACE
Status codes: 408 413 429 500 502 503 504
It adheres to the Retry-After response header.
Type: number
Default: 10000
Timeout in milliseconds for getting a response.
Type: Object<string, Function[]>
Default: {beforeRequest: []}
Hooks allow modifications during the request lifecycle. Hook functions may be async and are run serially.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
This hook enables you to modify the request right before it is sent. Ky will make no further changes to the request after this. The hook function receives the normalized options as the first argument. You could, for example, modify options.headers here.
Type: Function[]
Default: []
This hook enables you to read and optionally modify the response. The hook function receives a clone of the response as the first argument. The return value of the hook function will be used by Ky as the response object if it's an instance of Response.
ky.get('https://example.com', {
hooks: {
afterResponse: [
response => {
// You could do something with the response, for example, logging.
log(response);
// Or return a `Response` instance to overwrite the response.
return new Response('A different response', {status: 200});
}
]
}
});Type: boolean
Default: true
Throw a HTTPError for error responses (non-2xx status codes).
Setting this to false may be useful if you are checking for resource availability and are expecting error responses.
Create a new ky instance with some defaults overridden with your own.
import ky from 'ky';
// On https://my-site.com
const api = ky.extend({prefixUrl: 'https://example.com/api'});
(async () => {
await api.get('/users/123');
//=> 'https://example.com/api/users/123'
await api.get('/status', {prefixUrl: ''});
//=> 'https://my-site.com/status'
})();Type: Object
Exposed for instanceof checks. The error has a response property with the Response object.
The error thrown when the request times out.
Fetch (and hence Ky) has built-in support for request cancellation through the AbortController API. Read more.
Example:
import ky from 'ky';
const controller = new AbortController();
const {signal} = controller;
setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);
(async () => {
try {
console.log(await ky(url, {signal}).text());
} catch (error) {
if (error.name === 'AbortError') {
console.log('Fetch aborted');
} else {
console.error('Fetch error:', error);
}
}
})();Check out ky-universal.
Check out ky-universal.
Either use a test runner that can run in the browser, like Mocha, or use AVA with ky-universal. Read more.
Upload the index.js file in this repo somewhere, for example, to your website server, or use a CDN version. Then import the file.
<script type="module">
// Replace the version number with the latest version
import ky from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ky@0.5.2/index.js';
(async () => {
const parsed = await ky('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1').json();
console.log(parsed.title);
//=> 'delectus aut autem
})();
</script>Alternatively, you can use the umd.js file with a traditional <script> tag (without type="module"), in which case ky will be a global.
<!-- Replace the version number with the latest version -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/ky@0.5.2/umd.js">
<script>
(async () => {
const ky = ky.default;
const parsed = await ky('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1').json();
console.log(parsed.title);
//=> 'delectus aut autem
})();
</script>How is it different from got
See my answer here. Got is maintained by the same people as Ky.
How is it different from axios?
See my answer here.
How is it different from r2?
See my answer in #10.
It's just a random short npm package name I managed to get. It does, however, have a meaning in Japanese:
A form of text-able slang, KY is an abbreviation for 空気読めない (kuuki yomenai), which literally translates into “cannot read the air.” It's a phrase applied to someone who misses the implied meaning.
The latest version of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
- ky-universal - Use Ky in both Node.js and browsers
- got - Simplified HTTP requests for Node.js
MIT