# WebSockets

> 

You can use WebSockets for all or some of the communication with your server, see [wsLink](https://trpc.io/docs/client/links/wsLink.md) for how to set it up on the client.

> [!TIP]
> The document here outlines the specific details of using WebSockets. For general usage of subscriptions, see [our subscriptions guide](https://trpc.io/docs/server/subscriptions.md).


### Creating a WebSocket-server

```bash
yarn add ws
```

```ts title="server/wsServer.ts"
import { applyWSSHandler } from '@trpc/server/adapters/ws';
import { WebSocketServer } from 'ws';
import { appRouter } from './routers/app';
import { createContext } from './trpc';

const wss = new WebSocketServer({
  port: 3001,
});
const handler = applyWSSHandler({
  wss,
  router: appRouter,
  createContext,
  // Enable heartbeat messages to keep connection open (disabled by default)
  keepAlive: {
    enabled: true,
    // server ping message interval in milliseconds
    pingMs: 30000,
    // connection is terminated if pong message is not received in this many milliseconds
    pongWaitMs: 5000,
  },
});

wss.on('connection', (ws) => {
  console.log(`++ Connection (${wss.clients.size})`);
  ws.once('close', () => {
    console.log(`-- Connection (${wss.clients.size})`);
  });
});
console.log('WebSocket Server listening on ws://localhost:3001');

process.on('SIGTERM', () => {
  console.log('SIGTERM');
  handler.broadcastReconnectNotification();
  wss.close();
});
```

### Sharing a port with your HTTP server

To serve HTTP and WebSockets on the same port, pass your HTTP server to `WebSocketServer`. `ws` then handles the upgrade requests, and your adapter handles the rest.

```ts title="server/index.ts"
import { createHTTPServer } from '@trpc/server/adapters/standalone';
import { applyWSSHandler } from '@trpc/server/adapters/ws';
import { WebSocketServer } from 'ws';
import { appRouter } from './router';

const server = createHTTPServer({ router: appRouter });
const wss = new WebSocketServer({ server });
applyWSSHandler({ wss, router: appRouter });

server.listen(3000);
```

### Setting `TRPCClient` to use WebSockets

> [!TIP]
> You can use [Links](https://trpc.io/docs/client/links.md) to route queries and/or mutations to HTTP transport and subscriptions over WebSockets.


```tsx title="client.ts"
import { createTRPCClient, createWSClient, wsLink } from '@trpc/client';
import type { AppRouter } from './server';

// create persistent WebSocket connection
const wsClient = createWSClient({
  url: `ws://localhost:3001`,
});

// configure TRPCClient to use WebSockets transport
const client = createTRPCClient<AppRouter>({
  links: [
    wsLink({
      client: wsClient,
    }),
  ],
});
```

## Authentication / connection params {#connectionParams}

> [!TIP]
> If you're doing a web application, you can ignore this section as the cookies are sent as part of the request.


In order to authenticate with WebSockets, you can define `connectionParams` to `createWSClient`. This will be sent as the first message when the client establishes a WebSocket connection.

```ts title="server/context.ts"
import type { CreateWSSContextFnOptions } from '@trpc/server/adapters/ws';

export const createContext = async (opts: CreateWSSContextFnOptions) => {
  const token = opts.info.connectionParams?.token;
  // const token: string | undefined

  // [... authenticate]

  return {};
};

export type Context = Awaited<ReturnType<typeof createContext>>;
```

```ts title="client/trpc.ts"
import { createTRPCClient, createWSClient, wsLink } from '@trpc/client';
import type { AppRouter } from './server';
import superjson from 'superjson';

const wsClient = createWSClient({
  url: `ws://localhost:3000`,

  connectionParams: async () => {
    return {
      token: 'supersecret',
    };
  },
});
export const trpc = createTRPCClient<AppRouter>({
  links: [wsLink({ client: wsClient, transformer: superjson })],
});
```

`createContext` runs once per connection (after the connection params arrive, if you send them), and every call over that connection shares its result. If it throws, the server sends the error and closes the connection. A token is only checked when the connection opens, so it stays accepted on that connection after it expires.

## Automatic tracking of id using `tracked()` (recommended)

If you `yield` an event using our `tracked()`-helper and include an `id`, the client will automatically reconnect when it gets disconnected and send the last known ID when reconnecting as part of the `lastEventId`-input.

You can send an initial `lastEventId` when initializing the subscription and it will be automatically updated as the browser receives data.

> [!NOTE] Info
> If you're fetching data based on the `lastEventId`, and capturing all events is critical, you may want to use `ReadableStream`'s or a similar pattern as an intermediary as is done in [our full-stack SSE example](https://github.com/trpc/examples-tanstack-start-sse-chat) to prevent newly emitted events being ignored while yield'ing the original batch based on `lastEventId`.


```ts
import EventEmitter, { on } from 'events';
import { initTRPC, tracked } from '@trpc/server';
import { z } from 'zod';

type Post = { id: string; title: string };

const t = initTRPC.create();
const publicProcedure = t.procedure;
const router = t.router;

const ee = new EventEmitter();

export const subRouter = router({
  onPostAdd: publicProcedure
    .input(
      z
        .object({
          // lastEventId is the last event id that the client has received
          // On the first call, it will be whatever was passed in the initial setup
          // If the client reconnects, it will be the last event id that the client received
          lastEventId: z.string().nullish(),
        })
        .optional(),
    )
    .subscription(async function* (opts) {
      if (opts.input?.lastEventId) {
        // [...] get the posts since the last event id and yield them
      }
      // listen for new events
      for await (const [data] of on(ee, 'add', {
        // Passing the AbortSignal from the request automatically cancels the event emitter when the subscription is aborted
        signal: opts.signal,
      })) {
        const post = data as Post;
        // tracking the post id ensures the client can reconnect at any time and get the latest events since this id
        yield tracked(post.id, post);
      }
    }),
});
```

## WebSockets RPC Specification

> You can read more details by drilling into the TypeScript definitions:
>
> - [/packages/server/src/unstable-core-do-not-import/rpc/envelopes.ts](https://github.com/trpc/trpc/tree/main/packages/server/src/unstable-core-do-not-import/rpc/envelopes.ts)
> - [/packages/server/src/unstable-core-do-not-import/rpc/codes.ts](https://github.com/trpc/trpc/tree/main/packages/server/src/unstable-core-do-not-import/rpc/codes.ts).

### `query` / `mutation`

#### Request

```ts
interface RequestMessage {
  id: number | string;
  jsonrpc?: '2.0';
  method: 'query' | 'mutation';
  params: {
    path: string;
    input?: unknown; // <-- pass input of procedure, serialized by transformer
  };
}
```

#### Response

_... below, or an error._

```ts
interface ResponseMessage {
  id: number | string;
  jsonrpc?: '2.0';
  result: {
    type: 'data'; // always 'data' for mutation / queries
    data: TOutput; // output from procedure
  };
}
```

### `subscription` / `subscription.stop`

#### Start a subscription

```ts
interface SubscriptionRequest {
  id: number | string;
  jsonrpc?: '2.0';
  method: 'subscription';
  params: {
    path: string;
    input?: unknown; // <-- pass input of procedure, serialized by transformer
  };
}
```

#### To cancel a subscription, call `subscription.stop`

```ts
interface SubscriptionStopRequest {
  id: number | string; // <-- id of your created subscription
  jsonrpc?: '2.0';
  method: 'subscription.stop';
}
```

#### Subscription response shape

_... below, or an error._

```ts
interface SubscriptionResponse {
  id: number | string;
  jsonrpc?: '2.0';
  result:
    | {
        type: 'data';
        data: TData; // subscription emitted data
      }
    | {
        type: 'started'; // subscription started
      }
    | {
        type: 'stopped'; // subscription stopped
      };
}
```

#### Connection params

If the connection is initialized with `?connectionParams=1`, the first message has to be connection params.

```ts
interface ConnectionParamsMessage {
  data: Record<string, string> | null;
  method: 'connectionParams';
}
```

## Errors

See [https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification#error_object](https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification#error_object) or [Error Formatting](https://trpc.io/docs/server/error-formatting.md).

## Notifications from Server to Client

### `{ id: null, type: 'reconnect' }`

Tells clients to reconnect before shutting down the server. Invoked by `wssHandler.broadcastReconnectNotification()`.