# http-encoding > Everything you need to handle HTTP message body content-encoding Latest version **2.2.0** (published 2026-01-23) · Apache-2.0 license · 0 weekly downloads ## Install ```sh npm install http-encoding pnpm add http-encoding yarn add http-encoding bun add http-encoding ``` ## Health **Score 60/100 (C)** — status: stable. Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; high quality score. Warnings: low downloads; no esm support. ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Version | 2.2.0 | | Published | 2026-01-23 | | First published | 2021-05-20 | | Weekly downloads | 0 | | License | Apache-2.0 | | TypeScript types | bundled | | Module format | CommonJS | | Node | >=v18.0.0 | | Dependencies | 3 | | Unpacked size | 126.9 KB | | Known vulnerabilities | 0 | | Install scripts | no | | Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) | | GitHub stars | 9 | | Author | Tim Perry | | Maintainers | pimterry | | Keywords | http, encoding, content-encoding, encoder, decoder, brotli, zstandard, zstd, gzip, deflate | ## Links - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-encoding - Repository: https://github.com/httptoolkit/http-encoding - Homepage: https://github.com/httptoolkit/http-encoding#readme - Issues: https://github.com/httptoolkit/http-encoding/issues - npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/http-encoding ## Dependencies (3) - [pify](https://npm.io/package/pify.md) ^5.0.0 - [zstd-codec](https://npm.io/package/zstd-codec.md) ^0.1.5 - [brotli-wasm](https://npm.io/package/brotli-wasm.md) ^3.0.0 ## Alternatives - [flatbuffers](https://npm.io/package/flatbuffers.md) — 6.0M weekly downloads - [jwt-simple](https://npm.io/package/jwt-simple.md) — 259.5K weekly downloads - [@exodus/patch-broken-hermes-typed-arrays](https://npm.io/package/@exodus/patch-broken-hermes-typed-arrays.md) — 28.5K weekly downloads - [@native-to-anchor/buffer-layout](https://npm.io/package/@native-to-anchor/buffer-layout.md) — 12.2K weekly downloads - [binary-parser-encoder](https://npm.io/package/binary-parser-encoder.md) — 5.3K weekly downloads ## Recent versions - 2.2.0 (latest) — 2026-01-23 - 2.1.1 — 2025-05-08 - 2.1.0 — 2025-05-08 - 2.0.1 — 2024-07-29 - 2.0.0 — 2024-04-18 - 1.5.1 — 2022-05-05 - 1.5.0 — 2022-01-31 - 1.4.0 — 2021-07-21 - 1.3.0 — 2021-06-15 - 1.2.1 — 2021-06-03 - 1.2.0 — 2021-06-01 - 1.1.0 — 2021-05-24 - 1.0.1 — 2021-05-20 - 1.0.0 — 2021-05-20 ## README # http-encoding [![Build Status](https://github.com/httptoolkit/http-encoding/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/httptoolkit/http-encoding/actions) [![Available on NPM](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/http-encoding.svg)](https://npmjs.com/package/http-encoding) > _Part of [HTTP Toolkit](https://httptoolkit.com): powerful tools for building, testing & debugging HTTP(S)_ **Everything you need to handle HTTP message body content-encoding** This package includes methods to decode & encode all commonly used HTTP content encodings, in a consistent format, usable in a wide range of Node.js versions and browsers. Both buffer & streaming APIs are available. The supported codecs are: * Gzip * Raw deflate (with or without a zlib wrapper) * Brotli * Zstandard * Base64 All encoding names are case-insensitive (although lowercase is generally standard). The 'identity', 'amz-1.0', 'none', 'text', 'binary', 'utf8' and 'utf-8' encodings are all supported as no-op encodings, passed through with no en/decoding at all. Only 'identity' is standard, but the others are all in common use regardless. Found a codec used in real-world HTTP that isn't supported? Open an issue! ## Buffer API The library includes two general methods for de/encoding buffers: ### `decodeBuffer(body, encoding)` Takes an encoded body buffer and encoding (in the format of a standard HTTP [content-encoding header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Encoding)) and returns a promise for a decoded buffer, using the zero to many buffers specified in the header. The input buffer can be any Uint8Array including a Node Buffer (a subclass of Uint8Array). A node-compatible buffer is always returned. If any encoding is unrecognized or unavailable then this method will throw an exception. A `decodeBufferSync` method is also available for some use cases, but not recommended, as it's less performant and cannot support some encodings (Brotli or Zstandard). ### `encodeBuffer(body, encoding, { level })` Takes a raw body buffer and a single encoding (a valid HTTP [content-encoding](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Encoding) name) and returns a promise for an encoded buffer, using the zero to many buffers specified in the header. The input buffer can be any Uint8Array (including a Node Buffer, which is a Uint8Array subclass) or an ArrayBuffer. A node-compatible buffer is always returned. If any encoding is unrecognized or unavailable then this method will throw an exception. ## Per-codec methods This library also exports consistent async methods to compress and decompress each of the codecs directly: * `gzip` * `gunzip` * `deflate` * `deflateRaw` * `inflate` * `inflateRaw` * `brotliCompress` * `brotliDecompress` * `zstdCompress` * `zstdDecompress` * `encodeBase64` * `decodeBase64` Each method accepts a buffer and returns a promise for a buffer. ## Streaming API This library also supports streaming encoding and decoding, returning web-standard `TransformStream` instances. This uses native `CompressionStream`/`DecompressionStream` where available (all modern browsers and Node 18+). ### `createDecodeStream(encoding)` Takes an encoding (in the format of a standard HTTP [content-encoding header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Encoding)) and returns a `TransformStream` that decodes data with the specified encoding(s), or `null` if no transformation is needed (identity encoding or undefined). The encoding can be a string (e.g. `'gzip'` or `'gzip, base64'`), an array of strings, or undefined. ### `createEncodeStream(encoding)` Takes an encoding (a valid HTTP [content-encoding](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Content-Encoding) name) and returns a `TransformStream` that encodes data with the specified encoding(s), or `null` if no transformation is needed (identity encoding or undefined). The encoding can be a string (e.g. `'gzip'` or `'gzip, base64'`), an array of strings, or undefined. ### Per-codec streaming methods Each codec can also be stream-decoded explicitly with the corresponding method: * `createGzipStream` * `createGunzipStream` * `createDeflateStream` * `createInflateStream` * `createDeflateRawStream` * `createInflateRawStream` * `createBrotliCompressStream` * `createBrotliDecompressStream` * `createZstdCompressStream` * `createZstdDecompressStream` * `createBase64EncodeStream` * `createBase64DecodeStream` ## Browser usage To use this in a browser, you'll need to use a bundler (e.g. Webpack) that can include standard Node.js polyfill packages, you may need to install those polyfill packages, and your bundler needs to support bundling WebAssembly (e.g. Webpack v4+). In Webpack v4 this should all work automatically. In Webpack v5 and most other builders this will require explicit dependencies and configuration. See this package's own [test webpack config](./karma.conf.js#L14-L44) and [dev dependencies](./package.json) for a working example. Brotli and Zstandard are only supported in runtime environments that support WebAssembly. All WebAssembly packages are loaded on-demand and only when native methods (e.g. Node's `zlib.brotli*`) are not available. --- _Source: https://npm.io/package/http-encoding · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._