Skip to content
Cloudflare Docs

https

Compatibility flags

Client-side methods

To use the HTTPS client-side methods (https.get, https.request, etc.), you must enable the enable_nodejs_http_modules compatibility flag in addition to the nodejs_compat flag.

This flag is automatically enabled for Workers using a compatibility date of 2025-08-15 or later when nodejs_compat is enabled. For Workers using an earlier compatibility date, you can manually enable it by adding the flag to your wrangler.toml:

compatibility_flags = ["nodejs_compat", "enable_nodejs_http_modules"]

Server-side methods

To use the HTTPS server-side methods (https.createServer, https.Server, https.ServerResponse), you must enable the enable_nodejs_http_server_modules compatibility flag in addition to the nodejs_compat flag.

This flag is automatically enabled for Workers using a compatibility date of 2025-09-01 or later when nodejs_compat is enabled. For Workers using an earlier compatibility date, you can manually enable it by adding the flag to your wrangler.toml:

compatibility_flags = ["nodejs_compat", "enable_nodejs_http_server_modules"]

To use both client-side and server-side methods, enable both flags:

compatibility_flags = ["nodejs_compat", "enable_nodejs_http_modules", "enable_nodejs_http_server_modules"]

get

An implementation of the Node.js `https.get' method.

The get method performs a GET request to the specified URL and invokes the callback with the response. This is a convenience method that simplifies making HTTPS GET requests without manually configuring request options.

Because get is a wrapper around fetch(...), it may be used only within an exported fetch or similar handler. Outside of such a handler, attempts to use get will throw an error.

import { get } from "node:https";
export default {
async fetch() {
const { promise, resolve, reject } = Promise.withResolvers();
get("https://example.com", (res) => {
let data = "";
res.setEncoding("utf8");
res.on("data", (chunk) => {
data += chunk;
});
res.on("end", () => {
resolve(new Response(data));
});
res.on("error", reject);
}).on("error", reject);
return promise;
},
};

The implementation of get in Workers is a wrapper around the global fetch API and is therefore subject to the same limits.

As shown in the example above, it is necessary to arrange for requests to be correctly awaited in the fetch handler using a promise or the fetch may be canceled prematurely when the handler returns.

request

An implementation of the Node.js `https.request' method.

The request method creates an HTTPS request with customizable options like method, headers, and body. It provides full control over the request configuration and returns a Node.js stream.Writable for sending request data.

Because get is a wrapper around fetch(...), it may be used only within an exported fetch or similar handler. Outside of such a handler, attempts to use get will throw an error.

The request method accepts all options from http.request with some differences in default values:

  • protocol: default https:
  • port: default 443
  • agent: default https.globalAgent
import { request } from "node:https";
import { strictEqual, ok } from "node:assert";
export default {
async fetch() {
const { promise, resolve, reject } = Promise.withResolvers();
const req = request(
"https://developers.cloudflare.com/robots.txt",
{
method: "GET",
},
(res) => {
strictEqual(res.statusCode, 200);
let data = "";
res.setEncoding("utf8");
res.on("data", (chunk) => {
data += chunk;
});
res.once("error", reject);
res.on("end", () => {
ok(data.includes("User-agent"));
resolve(new Response(data));
});
},
);
req.end();
return promise;
},
};

The following additional options are not supported: ca, cert, ciphers, clientCertEngine (deprecated), crl, dhparam, ecdhCurve, honorCipherOrder, key, passphrase, pfx, rejectUnauthorized, secureOptions, secureProtocol, servername, sessionIdContext, highWaterMark.

createServer

An implementation of the Node.js https.createServer method.

The createServer method creates an HTTPS server instance that can handle incoming secure requests. It's a convenience function that creates a new Server instance and optionally sets up a request listener callback.

import { createServer } from "node:https";
import { httpServerHandler } from "cloudflare:node";
const server = createServer((req, res) => {
res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" });
res.end("Hello from Node.js HTTPS server!");
});
server.listen(8080);
export default httpServerHandler({ port: 8080 });

The httpServerHandler function integrates Node.js HTTPS servers with the Cloudflare Workers request model. When a request arrives at your Worker, the handler automatically routes it to your Node.js server running on the specified port. This bridge allows you to use familiar Node.js server patterns while benefiting from the Workers runtime environment, including automatic scaling, edge deployment, and integration with other Cloudflare services.

Agent

An implementation of the Node.js https.Agent class.

An Agent manages HTTPS connection reuse by maintaining request queues per host/port. In the Workers environment, however, such low-level management of the network connection, ports, etc, is not relevant because it is handled by the Cloudflare infrastructure instead. Accordingly, the implementation of Agent in Workers is a stub implementation that does not support connection pooling or keep-alive.

Server

An implementation of the Node.js https.Server class.

In Node.js, the https.Server class represents an HTTPS server and provides methods for handling incoming secure requests. In Workers, handling of secure requests is provided by the Cloudflare infrastructure so there really is not much difference between using https.Server or http.Server. The workers runtime provides an implementation for completeness but most workers should probably just use http.Server.

import { Server } from "node:https";
import { httpServerHandler } from "cloudflare:node";
const server = new Server((req, res) => {
res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "application/json" });
res.end(JSON.stringify({ message: "Hello from HTTPS Server!" }));
});
server.listen(8080);
export default httpServerHandler({ port: 8080 });

The following differences exist between the Workers implementation and Node.js:

  • Connection management methods such as closeAllConnections() and closeIdleConnections() are not implemented due to the nature of the Workers environment.
  • Only listen() variants with a port number or no parameters are supported: listen(), listen(0, callback), listen(callback), etc.
  • The following server options are not supported: maxHeaderSize, insecureHTTPParser, keepAliveTimeout, connectionsCheckingInterval
  • TLS/SSL-specific options such as ca, cert, key, pfx, rejectUnauthorized, secureProtocol are not supported in the Workers environment. If you need to use mTLS, use the mTLS binding.

Other differences between Node.js and Workers implementation of node:https

Because the Workers implementation of node:https is a wrapper around the global fetch API, there are some differences in behavior compared to Node.js:

  • Connection headers are not used. Workers will manage connections automatically.
  • Content-Length headers will be handled the same way as in the fetch API. If a body is provided, the header will be set automatically and manually set values will be ignored.
  • Expect: 100-continue headers are not supported.
  • Trailing headers are not supported.
  • The 'continue' event is not supported.
  • The 'information' event is not supported.
  • The 'socket' event is not supported.
  • The 'upgrade' event is not supported.
  • Gaining direct access to the underlying socket is not supported.
  • Configuring TLS-specific options like ca, cert, key, rejectUnauthorized, etc, is not supported.