Web APIs

meow is standards-first: its baseline global surface is the web platform, not Node. These APIs are available in both strict-web and node-compat modes — the mode only changes whether the Node host surface is layered on top.

The committed global surface

Area	Globals
Fetch	`fetch`, `Request`, `Response`, `Headers`, `FormData`
URLs	`URL`, `URLSearchParams`, `URLPattern`
Encoding	`TextEncoder`, `TextDecoder`
Crypto	`crypto.subtle` (digest, encrypt/decrypt, sign/verify, key ops), `crypto.getRandomValues`
Binary	`Blob`
Abort	`AbortController`, `AbortSignal`, `DOMException`
Timers	`setTimeout`, `clearTimeout`
Console	`console.log` / `info` / `warn` / `error` / `debug`

These are typed for your editor automatically — meow sync writes .meow/strict-web.d.ts so the globals resolve with nothing installed.

Examples

const res = await fetch("https://api.example.com/data", {
  headers: { authorization: "Bearer …" },
});
const data = await res.json();

const url = new URL("https://meow.style/docs?x=1");
url.searchParams.get("x");          // "1"

const pattern = new URLPattern({ pathname: "/users/:id" });
pattern.exec("https://x/users/42")?.pathname.groups.id;  // "42"

const data = new TextEncoder().encode("hello");
const digest = await crypto.subtle.digest("SHA-256", data);
const hex = [...new Uint8Array(digest)]
  .map((b) => b.toString(16).padStart(2, "0"))
  .join("");

const res = await fetch(url, {
  signal: AbortSignal.timeout(5_000),  // auto-abort after 5s
});

Not present

meow is a runtime, never a browser. The DOM and browser-host globals are intentionally absent — window, document, localStorage, and WebSocket are not part of the surface. The generated type config pins lib: ["esnext"] so those names don’t leak into your editor either.

Crypto & determinism

In strict-web mode, crypto.getRandomValues() draws from the seeded RNG by default — deterministic across runs. crypto.subtle (hashing, signing, key derivation) is unaffected; it’s deterministic by nature. Grant real entropy with --allow-random when you need it.

Serving HTTP

The server side of the web platform — accepting requests and returning Response objects — is the meow:http built-in module:

import { serve } from "meow:http";

serve((req: Request) => new Response("hi"), { port: 3000 });

Beyond the committed surface above, meow also exposes some web APIs transitively — structuredClone, atob/btoa, performance, EventTarget, and streams beyond fetch bodies are present but not yet a committed surface, so they aren’t declared in the strict-web types and may evolve. Build on the committed set for stability.

meow:http

The HTTP server module.

Node.js compatibility

When you need node:fs, process, and CommonJS.

Get started

Core concepts

Runtime

Package manager

Toolchain

Observability

Configuration

The committed global surface

Examples

Not present

Crypto & determinism

Serving HTTP

meow:http

Node.js compatibility

​The committed global surface

​Examples

​Not present

​Crypto & determinism

​Serving HTTP

meow:http

Node.js compatibility

The committed global surface

Examples

Not present

Crypto & determinism

Serving HTTP