# local-web-server > A lean, modular web server for rapid full-stack development Latest version **5.4.0** (published 2024-08-01) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads ## Install ```sh npm install local-web-server pnpm add local-web-server yarn add local-web-server bun add local-web-server ``` Provides the command `ws`. ## Health **Score 20/100 (F)** — status: abandoned. Positive: esm support; no vulnerabilities. Warnings: low downloads; no types. Negative: abandoned; low maintenance score. ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Version | 5.4.0 | | Published | 2024-08-01 | | First published | 2013-06-04 | | Weekly downloads | 0 | | License | MIT | | TypeScript types | none | | Module format | ESM | | Node | >=12.20 | | Dependencies | 17 | | Unpacked size | 11.6 KB | | Known vulnerabilities | 0 | | Install scripts | no | | GitHub stars | 1267 | | Author | Lloyd Brookes | | Maintainers | 75lb | | Keywords | dev, server, web, tool, front-end, development, cors, mime, rest, mock, api, proxy, lws, backend, frontend, full-stack, http-server, http, http2, https | ## Links - npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/local-web-server - Repository: https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server - Homepage: https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server#readme - Issues: https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/issues - npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/local-web-server ## Dependencies (17) - [lws](https://npm.io/package/lws.md) ^4.1.5 - [lws-log](https://npm.io/package/lws-log.md) ^3.0.0 - [lws-spa](https://npm.io/package/lws-spa.md) ^4.1.1 - [lws-cors](https://npm.io/package/lws-cors.md) ^4.2.1 - [lws-json](https://npm.io/package/lws-json.md) ^2.0.0 - [lws-mime](https://npm.io/package/lws-mime.md) ^2.0.0 - [lws-index](https://npm.io/package/lws-index.md) ^3.1.1 - [lws-range](https://npm.io/package/lws-range.md) ^4.0.1 - [lws-static](https://npm.io/package/lws-static.md) ^3.1.1 - [lws-rewrite](https://npm.io/package/lws-rewrite.md) ^4.0.0 - [lws-compress](https://npm.io/package/lws-compress.md) ^3.1.0 - [lws-blacklist](https://npm.io/package/lws-blacklist.md) ^3.0.0 - [lws-basic-auth](https://npm.io/package/lws-basic-auth.md) ^2.0.0 - [lws-body-parser](https://npm.io/package/lws-body-parser.md) ^3.0.1 - [lws-conditional-get](https://npm.io/package/lws-conditional-get.md) ^3.0.0 - [lws-request-monitor](https://npm.io/package/lws-request-monitor.md) ^2.0.0 - [current-module-paths](https://npm.io/package/current-module-paths.md) ^1.1.1 ## Alternatives - [@opentelemetry/exporter-zipkin](https://npm.io/package/@opentelemetry/exporter-zipkin.md) — 14.8M weekly downloads - [pusher-js](https://npm.io/package/pusher-js.md) — 2.0M weekly downloads - [browserify](https://npm.io/package/browserify.md) — 1.7M weekly downloads - [sqs-consumer](https://npm.io/package/sqs-consumer.md) — 1.7M weekly downloads - [@sanity/eventsource](https://npm.io/package/@sanity/eventsource.md) — 930.8K weekly downloads ## Recent versions - 5.4.0 (latest) — 2024-08-01 - 5.3.4 — 2024-07-20 - 5.3.3 — 2024-03-31 - 5.3.2 — 2024-03-31 - 5.3.1 — 2024-01-08 - 5.3.0 — 2023-02-07 - 5.2.1 — 2022-05-28 - 5.2.0 — 2022-03-13 - 5.1.1 — 2021-08-25 - 5.1.0 — 2021-08-06 - 5.0.0 — 2021-07-06 - 5.0.0-0 — 2021-06-09 - 4.2.1 — 2020-06-11 - 4.2.0 — 2020-05-23 - 4.1.0 — 2020-05-17 - … 134 more at https://npm.io/package/local-web-server/versions ## README [![view on npm](https://badgen.net/npm/v/local-web-server)](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server) [![npm module downloads](https://badgen.net/npm/dt/local-web-server)](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server) [![Gihub repo dependents](https://badgen.net/github/dependents-repo/lwsjs/local-web-server)](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/network/dependents?dependent_type=REPOSITORY) [![Gihub package dependents](https://badgen.net/github/dependents-pkg/lwsjs/local-web-server)](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/network/dependents?dependent_type=PACKAGE) [![Node.js CI](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/actions/workflows/node.js.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/actions/workflows/node.js.yml) [![js-standard-style](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-standard-brightgreen.svg)](https://github.com/feross/standard) *Upgraders, please read the [release notes](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/releases). For feedback, discussion and support see [here](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/discussions).* # local-web-server A lean, modular web server for rapid full-stack development. * Supports HTTP, HTTPS and HTTP2. * Small and 100% personalisable. Load and use only the behaviour required by your project. * Attach a custom view to personalise how activity is visualised. * Programmatic and command-line interfaces. Use this tool to: * Build any type of front-end web application (static, dynamic, Single Page App, Progessive Web App, React etc). * Prototype a back-end service (REST API, microservice, websocket, Server Sent Events service etc). * Monitor activity, analyse performance, experiment with caching strategy etc. Local-web-server is a distribution of [lws](https://github.com/lwsjs/lws) bundled with a "starter pack" of useful middleware. ## Synopsis This package installs the `ws` command-line tool (take a look at the [usage guide](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/CLI-usage)). ### Static web site Running `ws` without any arguments will host the current directory as a static web site. Navigating to the server will render a directory listing or your `index.html`, if that file exists. ```sh $ ws Listening on http://mbp.local:8000, http://127.0.0.1:8000, http://192.168.0.100:8000 ``` [Static files tutorial](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-serve-static-files). This clip demonstrates static hosting plus a couple of log output formats - `dev` and `stats`. ### Single Page Application Serving a Single Page Application (an app with client-side routing, e.g. a React or Angular app) is as trivial as specifying the name of your single page: ```sh $ ws --spa index.html ``` With a static site, requests for typical SPA paths (e.g. `/user/1`, `/login`) would return `404 Not Found` as a file at that location does not exist. However, by marking `index.html` as the SPA you create this rule: *If a static file is requested (e.g. `/css/style.css`) then serve it, if not (e.g. `/login`) then serve the specified SPA and handle the route client-side.* [SPA tutorial](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-serve-a-Single-Page-Application-(SPA)). ### URL rewriting and proxied requests Another common use case is to forward certain requests to a remote server. The following command proxies blog post requests from any path beginning with `/posts/` to `https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/`. For example, a request for `/posts/1` would be proxied to `https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1`. ```sh $ ws --rewrite '/posts/(.*) -> https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/$1' ``` [Rewrite tutorial](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-rewrite-URLs-to-local-or-remote-destinations). This clip demonstrates the above plus use of `--static.extensions` to specify a default file extension and `--verbose` to monitor activity. ### HTTPS and HTTP2 For HTTPS or HTTP2, pass the `--https` or `--http2` flags respectively. [See the wiki](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki) for further configuration options and a guide on how to get the "green padlock" in your browser. ``` $ ws --http2 Listening at https://mba4.local:8000, https://127.0.0.1:8000, https://192.168.0.200:8000 ``` ## Built-in middleware stack If you do *not* supply a custom middleware stack via the `--stack` option the following default stack will be used. It's designed to cover most typical web development scenarios. | Name | Description | | ------------------ | ---- | | ↓ [Basic Auth](https://github.com/lwsjs/basic-auth) | Password-protect a server using Basic Authentication | | ↓ [Body Parser](https://github.com/lwsjs/body-parser) | Parses the request body, making `ctx.request.body` available to downstream middleware.| | ↓ [Request Monitor](https://github.com/lwsjs/request-monitor) | Feeds traffic information to the `--verbose` output.| | ↓ [Log](https://github.com/lwsjs/log) | Outputs an access log or stats view to the console.| | ↓ [Cors](https://github.com/lwsjs/cors) | Support for setting Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) headers | | ↓ [Json](https://github.com/lwsjs/json) | Pretty-prints JSON responses. | | ↓ [Rewrite](https://github.com/lwsjs/rewrite) | URL Rewriting. Use to re-route requests to local or remote destinations.| | ↓ [Blacklist](https://github.com/lwsjs/blacklist) | Forbid access to sensitive or private resources| | ↓ [Conditional Get](https://github.com/lwsjs/conditional-get) | Support for HTTP Conditional requests.| | ↓ [Mime](https://github.com/lwsjs/mime) | Customise the mime-type returned with any static resource.| | ↓ [Compress](https://github.com/lwsjs/compress) | Compress responses using gzip.| | ↓ [SPA](https://github.com/lwsjs/spa) | Support for Single Page Applications.| | ↓ [Static](https://github.com/lwsjs/static) | Serves static files.| | ↓ [Index](https://github.com/lwsjs/index) | Serves directory listings.| ## Further Documentation [See the wiki for plenty more documentation and tutorials](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki). ## Install ```sh $ npm install -g local-web-server ``` * * * © 2013-24 Lloyd Brookes \<75pound@gmail.com\>. Documented by [jsdoc-to-markdown](https://github.com/jsdoc2md/jsdoc-to-markdown). --- _Source: https://npm.io/package/local-web-server · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._