request

npmv2.88.2Deprecated

Simplified HTTP request client.

Deprecation notice: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142

Not recommended for new projects

No — request should not be adopted for new projects. Explicitly marked deprecated by its publisher. Pulls in 29 transitive packages, about 1.3 MB installed (at least — some of the tree is still being crawled).

AAdoption: grade A, Excellent.
14.5M downloads per week and 4 known dependents.
FMaintenance: grade F, Failing.
Explicitly marked deprecated by its publisher.
CWeight: grade C, Fair — worth a look.
Pulls in 29 transitive packages, about 1.3 MB installed (at least — some of the tree is still being crawled).
ASupply chain: grade A, Excellent.
No install scripts, 4 maintainers, and a contained dependency surface.
ALicense: grade A, Excellent.
Apache-2.0 — permissive, with no copyleft found in the dependency tree.

Grades are computed deterministically from registry metadata collected by PackageGraph — downloads, dependents, publish dates, the resolved dependency tree, maintainer count, and declared licenses. No third-party scores are used.

Install cost

What you actually take on by adding request to a project.

Direct dependencies

Runtime packages this one declares itself.

Total installed

Distinct packages in the full runtime tree, deduplicated the way a package manager would.

1.3 MB

Install size

Unpacked size of this package plus its entire runtime tree.

Tree depth

Longest resolved dependency chain below this package.

Part of this dependency tree has not been crawled yet, so these figures are a lower bound rather than a final total.

Licenses in the dependency tree

BSD-3-ClauseMIT

Every license you inherit by installing request, not just its own. Check this before a legal review, not after.

Compatibility

Node.js: node >= 6
Module format: CommonJS only
TypeScript: No bundled types
Install scripts: None

Quick start

A usage example from the request README.

jsFull README ↗

const request = require('request');
request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
  console.error('error:', error); // Print the error if one occurred
  console.log('statusCode:', response && response.statusCode); // Print the response status code if a response was received
  console.log('body:', body); // Print the HTML for the Google homepage.
});

request vs the alternatives

Packages solving a similar problem in the npm ecosystem, compared on the signals that drive an adoption decision.

Package	Weekly downloads	Dependents	License	Last release
requestthis page	14.5M	4	Apache-2.0	6 years ago
type-fest	0	5	(MIT OR CC0-1.0)	6 hours ago
follow-redirects	0	2	MIT	8 hours ago
agent-base	242.7M	5	MIT	7 hours ago
fdir	160.4M	2	MIT	6 hours ago
http-errors	154.5M	7	MIT	4 hours ago

Dependencies

Declared by request v2.88.2. Runtime dependencies are installed with the package; dev dependencies are not.

Runtime (20)

aws-sign2 ~0.7.0aws4 ^1.8.0caseless ~0.12.0combined-stream ~1.0.6 extend ~3.0.2forever-agent ~0.6.1form-data ~2.3.2har-validator ~5.1.3http-signature ~1.2.0is-typedarray ~1.0.0isstream ~0.1.2json-stringify-safe ~5.0.1mime-types ~2.1.19oauth-sign ~0.9.0performance-now ^2.1.0qs ~6.5.2safe-buffer ^5.1.2tough-cookie ~2.5.0tunnel-agent ^0.6.0uuid ^3.3.2

Dev (20)

bluebird ^3.2.1browserify ^13.0.1browserify-istanbul ^2.0.0buffer-equal ^1.0.0codecov ^3.0.4coveralls ^3.0.2function-bind ^1.0.2karma ^3.0.0karma-browserify ^5.0.1karma-cli ^1.0.0karma-coverage ^1.0.0karma-phantomjs-launcher ^1.0.0karma-tap ^3.0.1nyc ^14.1.1phantomjs-prebuilt ^2.1.3rimraf ^2.2.8server-destroy ^1.0.1standard ^9.0.0tape ^4.6.0taper ^0.5.0

Used by

Popular packages that depend on request.

dom-accessibility-apinpm

Implements https://w3c.github.io/accname/

↓ 96M/wk◈ 1 dependents⚖ MITTS

nannpm

Native Abstractions for Node.js: C++ header for Node 0.8 -> 26 compatibility

↓ 31.2M/wk◈ 1 dependents⚖ MIT

iconv-litenpm

Convert character encodings in pure javascript.

↓ 0/wk◈ 5 dependents⚖ MITTS

form-datanpm

A library to create readable "multipart/form-data" streams. Can be used to submit forms and file uploads to other web applications.

↓ 0/wk◈ 5 dependents⚖ MITTS

Relationship graph

Dependencies (left) and dependents (right) of request.

request dependencies dependents

Frequently installed together

eslintnpm

An AST-based pattern checker for JavaScript.

↓ 0/wk◈ 267 dependents⚖ MITTS

semvernpm

The semantic version parser used by npm.

↓ 799M/wk◈ 52 dependents⚖ ISC

@types/nodenpm

TypeScript definitions for node

↓ 0/wk◈ 312 dependents⚖ MITTS

mime-typesnpm

The ultimate javascript content-type utility.

↓ 235.5M/wk◈ 8 dependents⚖ MIT

cross-spawnnpm

Cross platform child_process#spawn and child_process#spawnSync

↓ 227.5M/wk◈ 7 dependents⚖ MIT

es-set-tostringtagnpm

A helper to optimistically set Symbol.toStringTag, when possible.

↓ 130M/wk◈ 1 dependents⚖ MITTS

combined-streamnpm

A stream that emits multiple other streams one after another.

↓ 111.6M/wk◈ 1 dependents⚖ MIT

hasownnpm

A robust, ES3 compatible, "has own property" predicate.

↓ 0/wk◈ 8 dependents⚖ MITTS

globnpm

the most correct and second fastest glob implementation in JavaScript

↓ 0/wk◈ 29 dependents⚖ BlueOak-1.0.0TS

safer-buffernpm

Modern Buffer API polyfill without footguns

↓ 0/wk◈ 3 dependents⚖ MIT

jest-diffnpm

No description provided.

↓ 0/wk◈ 7 dependents⚖ MITTS

@babel/preset-typescriptnpm

Babel preset for TypeScript.

↓ 0/wk◈ 12 dependents⚖ MIT

Release history

No releases in the last two years, typically about 15 days apart.

Recent versions of request
Version	Published	Size	License
2.88.2latest	6 years ago	204 KB	Apache-2.0
2.88.0	8 years ago	202 KB	Apache-2.0
2.87.0	8 years ago	202 KB	Apache-2.0
2.86.0	8 years ago	199 KB	Apache-2.0
2.85.0	8 years ago	199 KB	Apache-2.0
2.84.0	8 years ago	199 KB	Apache-2.0
2.83.0	8 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.82.0	8 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.81.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.80.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.79.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.78.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.77.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.76.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0
2.75.0	9 years ago	—	Apache-2.0

Overview

request is a deprecated npm package that simplified HTTP request client. It is extremely widely used, with about 14.5M downloads per week and 4 known dependents in the graph. The latest version is 2.88.2, released under the Apache-2.0 license.

Who should use it

request is deprecated and is best avoided for new projects. Existing users should plan a migration to a maintained alternative.

When not to use it

Do not adopt this package for new work — it is no longer maintained.

Pros

Large, well-established user base (14.5M weekly downloads).
Clear open-source license (Apache-2.0).

Cons

Marked deprecated: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142.
Large dependency tree (40 direct dependencies) increases install size and audit surface.
No bundled TypeScript types (may require a separate @types package).

Auto-generated from collected registry metadata. No external claims are inferred.

Maintainers

fredkschott mikeal nylen simov

Keywords

http simple util utility

Frequently asked questions

Should I use request?

How do I install request?

Run `npm install request` to add request to your npm project.

How many dependencies does request have?

request declares 40 direct dependencies and pulls in 29 packages in total once its runtime tree is resolved totalling about 1.3 MB on disk.

What license is request released under?

request is distributed under the Apache-2.0 license. Its dependency tree also includes: BSD-3-Clause, MIT.

How popular is request?

request has approximately 14,530,466 downloads per week and 4 known dependent packages.

Is request still maintained?

No — request is marked as deprecated: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142. Consider a maintained alternative for new projects.

Does request run install scripts?

No. request does not define preinstall, install, or postinstall scripts, so installing it does not execute publisher-supplied code.