@reticulum/websocket-server-node

Node.js WebSocket server interface for @reticulum/core, backed by ws.

Why this package exists

The @reticulum/core core ships the WebSocketClientInterface (a WebSocket client, browser-safe via Web APIs). A WebSocket server, however, cannot run in a browser and Node does not ship one natively. This companion listens for inbound WebSocket connections and spawns a WebSocketClientInterface per accepted connection, mirroring TCPServerInterface.

Installation

npm install @reticulum/websocket-server-node
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This depends on @reticulum/core and ws automatically.

Usage

import { Reticulum } from "@reticulum/core";
import { WebSocketServerInterface } from "@reticulum/websocket-server-node";

const rns = new Reticulum();

const server = new WebSocketServerInterface({ listenPort: 4242 });
server.addEventListener("connection", (event) => {
  // Each accepted connection is a spawned WebSocketClientInterface; attach it
  // to the transport. The server copies its bitrate onto each spawned client.
  rns.addInterface(event.detail, false);
});
await server.connect();
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Set framing: "kiss" for RNode-style KISS-over-WebSocket peers (defaults to raw).

TLS / wss://

Browsers running in a secure context (an HTTPS page) cannot open ws:// connections (mixed-content blocking), so a browser-facing server must terminate TLS and listen for wss://. Enable it with ssl: true plus the PEM certificate chain and private key paths (mirrors the Python reference ssl/certfile/ keyfile config keys):

import fs from "node:fs";

const server = new WebSocketServerInterface({
  listenPort: 443,
  ssl: true,
  certFile: "/etc/letsencrypt/live/ws.example.com/fullchain.pem",
  keyFile: "/etc/letsencrypt/live/ws.example.com/privkey.pem",
});
await server.connect();
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A WebSocketClientInterface then connects with the ssl option (or a wss:// url) — the standard WebSocket API negotiates TLS from the scheme:

const client = new WebSocketClientInterface({
  host: "ws.example.com",
  port: 443,
  ssl: true, // builds wss://ws.example.com:443
});
await client.connect();
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The constructor validates the options the same way the Python reference does: enabling ssl requires both certFile and keyFile, and providing either without ssl is rejected (it would silently do nothing).

When a reverse proxy such as Caddy or nginx terminates TLS in front of the server, leave ssl off here and bind to a private or loopback address; the proxy offers wss:// to remote clients.

What's included

Note: the interface registry in @reticulum/node does not register ws-server (that would force it to depend on ws). Register it yourself with registerInterface if you want it in a schema enumeration.

License

Licensed under the EUPL 1.2. See the monorepo README for project-wide information.