fetch-safe

Tiny HTTP client for TypeScript with explicit errors and no try/catch at the call site.

fetch-safe returns Result objects that still destructure like [data, err], so the simplest path stays simple while richer result helpers remain available when you need them.

import { getJson } from "fetch-safe";

const [user, err] = await getJson<User>("/api/users/1");
if (err) {
  console.error(err.message);
  return;
}
console.log(user.name);

Install

pnpm add fetch-safe

Simple HTTP

The core idea is straightforward:

• call an HTTP helper
• destructure [data, err]
• return early on failure
• keep working with typed data on success

import { getJson } from "fetch-safe";

const [user, err] = await getJson<{ id: number; name: string }>("/api/users/1");

if (err) {
  console.error(err.message);
  return;
}

console.log(user.name);

All request helpers return Promise<Result<T, FetchError>>:

Method	Description
getJson<T>(url, opts?)	GET → parsed JSON
postJson<T>(url, body?, opts?)	POST JSON → parsed JSON
putJson<T>(url, body?, opts?)	PUT JSON → parsed JSON
patchJson<T>(url, body?, opts?)	PATCH JSON → parsed JSON
del<T>(url, opts?)	DELETE → parsed JSON
getText(url, opts?)	GET → raw string
head(url, opts?)	HEAD → Headers

You can import individual functions:

import { getJson, postJson } from "fetch-safe";

Or use the http namespace:

import { http } from "fetch-safe";

const [data, err] = await http.getJson("https://api.example.com/data");

Pass standard RequestInit options plus a timeout in milliseconds:

const [data, err] = await getJson<User>("/api/me", {
  headers: { Authorization: "Bearer token" },
  timeout: 5_000,
});

Errors

Errors are returned, not thrown.

Error	When
HttpError	Server responded with non-2xx status. Has .status, .statusText, .body
NetworkError	DNS failure, timeout, connection refused
ParseError	Response body is not valid JSON. Has .body with raw text
ValidationError	Parsed JSON failed schema validation. Has .issues and .body

import { getJson, HttpError, NetworkError, ParseError } from "fetch-safe";

const [data, err] = await getJson<User>("/api/users/1");

if (err) {
  if (err instanceof HttpError) {
    console.error(`HTTP ${err.status}: ${err.body}`);
  } else if (err instanceof NetworkError) {
    console.error("Network issue:", err.message);
  } else if (err instanceof ParseError) {
    console.error("Bad JSON:", err.body);
  }
  return;
}

console.log(data);

Schema Validation

Add a schema to validate parsed JSON at runtime. Any object with a .parse(value) method works, including Zod, Valibot, ArkType, or a hand-rolled validator.

import { z } from "zod";
import { http, ValidationError } from "fetch-safe";

const UserSchema = z.object({ id: z.number(), name: z.string() });

const [user, err] = await http.getJson("/api/users/1", { schema: UserSchema });

if (err) {
  if (err instanceof ValidationError) {
    console.error("Schema mismatch:", err.issues);
  }
  return;
}

console.log(user.name);

When validation fails, fetch-safe returns a ValidationError instead of throwing. It includes:

• .issues — validation issues from the schema library
• .body — the parsed value that failed validation
• .cause — the original error thrown by .parse()

Schema validation works with all JSON methods: getJson, postJson, putJson, patchJson, and del.

Result Types

Under the hood, fetch-safe returns a Result object, not a raw tuple.

That object gives you:

• .ok to distinguish success from failure
• .value and .error
• result methods like .map() and .toValueOrThrow()
• tuple-style destructuring so the common HTTP path still looks like [data, err]

Type	Shape	Description
Result<T, E>	Result object	Supports .ok, .value, .error, methods, and [data, err] destructuring
Ok<T>	Success result	ok: true, value: T, error: null
Err<E>	Error result	ok: false, value: null, error: E

Tuple-style destructuring still works:

const [data, error] = ok({ name: "Alice" });

if (!error) {
  console.log(data.name);
}

Object-style access is also available:

const result = ok({ name: "Alice" });

if (result.ok) {
  console.log(result.value.name);
}

If null is a meaningful success value in your app, use .ok as the authoritative discriminator.

Helpers

For simple HTTP calls, destructuring is enough. The helpers are there for transformation and composition.

Use result.map(...) when you already have a Result in hand. Use chainResult(...) when you want to start from getJson(...) directly, or when your mapper is async.

result.map(...)

Result.map(...) is synchronous. This is the right tool after you already await a request helper.

const result = await getJson<{ id: number; title: string }>("/api/todos/1");

const mapped = result.map((todo) => ({
  id: todo.id,
  title: todo.title.toUpperCase(),
}));

if (mapped.ok) {
  console.log(mapped.value.title);
}

chainResult(...)

Use chainResult when you want async-aware chaining from a Result or Promise<Result<...>>. It exists for two cases:

• you want to start chaining from getJson(...) before await
• your mapper returns a Promise

import { chainResult, getJson } from "fetch-safe";

const [name, err] = await chainResult(getJson<{ name: string }>("/api/users/1"))
  .map((user) => user.name)
  .toTuple();

Async mapper example:

const title = await chainResult(getJson<{ title: string }>("/api/todos/1"))
  .map(async (todo) => todo.title.toUpperCase())
  .toValueOrThrow();

Value extraction helpers

const value = await chainResult(getJson<{ name: string }>("/api/users/1")).toValue();
const valueOr = await chainResult(getJson<{ name: string }>("/api/users/1")).toValueOr("unknown");
const valueOrThrow = await chainResult(getJson<{ name: string }>("/api/users/1")).toValueOrThrow();

• toValue() returns T | null
• toValueOr(fallback) returns the fallback on error
• toValueOrThrow() throws the original error on failure

If null is a meaningful success value in your app, prefer .ok, toValueOr(...), or toValueOrThrow() over toValue().

Prerequisites

Install mise for managing development tools:

brew install mise

Development

mise install          # Node 24, Bun, pnpm 10
pnpm install          # dependencies
pnpm test             # vitest
pnpm lint             # oxlint
pnpm fmt              # oxfmt
pnpm check            # tsgo type check
pnpm build            # tsdown package build
pnpm perf             # manual throughput benchmarks
pnpm perf:memory      # manual retention tests, requires --expose-gc
pnpm perf:soak        # manual mixed workload soak test

Mise Tasks

mise run typecheck    # tsgo --noEmit
mise run lint         # oxlint
mise run format-check # oxfmt --check
mise run local-ci     # all three in parallel

Manual Performance Testing

Performance and long-running reliability checks are intentionally separate from the unit suite.

• pnpm test stays focused on correctness.
• pnpm perf measures relative throughput for hot paths.
• pnpm perf:memory looks for retained heap growth across batched runs.
• pnpm perf:soak runs a mixed success and failure workload for a longer interval and shows an in-place ASCII progress bar.

The manual scripts live under perf/ as TypeScript files and execute against the built package in dist/ so they measure the published runtime shape while keeping the harness itself typed.

Each perf command has a matching pnpm pre-script, so dist/ is rebuilt from the latest source automatically before the benchmark starts.

Suggested workflow

pnpm perf
pnpm perf:memory
PERF_SOAK_MS=300000 pnpm perf:soak

pnpm perf:soak defaults to a 5 minute run when PERF_SOAK_MS is not set.

What to watch for:

• throughput regressions compared to your last baseline
• post-GC heap usage that keeps climbing batch after batch
• RSS growth during the soak test that never stabilizes
• disproportionate growth on failure-heavy runs compared to success-heavy runs

The request layer now clears its timeout timer on both success and failure paths, which matters when you stress rejected or timed out requests in long-running apps.

License

MIT