Middleware

Middleware allows you to intercept requests and responses and inject behaviors dynamically every time a page or endpoint is about to be rendered. This rendering occurs at build time for all prerendered pages, but occurs when the route is requested for pages rendered on demand, making additional SSR features like cookies and headers available.

Middleware also allows you to set and share request-specific information across endpoints and pages by mutating a locals object that is available in all Astro components and API endpoints. This object is available even when this middleware runs at build time.

Basic Usage

Section titled Basic Usage

1. Create src/middleware.js|ts (Alternatively, you can create src/middleware/index.js|ts.)

2. Inside this file, export an onRequest() function that can be passed a context object and next() function. This must not be a default export.

   src/middleware.js

   export function onRequest (context, next) {
       // intercept data from a request
       // optionally, modify the properties in `locals`
       context.locals.title = "New title";
   
       // return a Response or the result of calling `next()`
       return next();
   };

3. Inside any .astro file, access response data using Astro.locals.

   src/components/Component.astro

   ---
   const data = Astro.locals;
   ---
   <h1>{data.title}</h1>
   <p>This {data.property} is from middleware.</p>

The context object

Section titled The context object

The context object includes information to be made available to other middleware, API routes and .astro routes during the rendering process.

This is an optional argument passed to onRequest() that may contain the locals object as well as any additional properties to be shared during rendering. For example, the context object may include cookies used in authentication.

Storing data in context.locals

Section titled Storing data in context.locals

context.locals is an object that can be manipulated inside the middleware.

This locals object is forwarded across the request handling process and is available as a property to APIContext and AstroGlobal. This allows data to be shared between middlewares, API routes, and .astro pages. This is useful for storing request-specific data, such as user data, across the rendering step.

Integration properties

Integrations may set properties and provide functionality through the locals object. If you are using an integration, check its documentation to ensure you are not overriding any of its properties or doing unnecessary work.

You can store any type of data inside locals: strings, numbers, and even complex data types such as functions and maps.

src/middleware.js

export function onRequest (context, next) {
    // intercept data from a request
    // optionally, modify the properties in `locals`
    context.locals.user.name = "John Wick";
    context.locals.welcomeTitle = () => {
        return "Welcome back " + locals.user.name;
    };

    // return a Response or the result of calling `next()`
    return next();
};

Then you can use this information inside any .astro file with Astro.locals.

src/pages/orders.astro

---
const title = Astro.locals.welcomeTitle();
const orders = Array.from(Astro.locals.orders.entries());
---
<h1>{title}</h1>
<p>This {data.property} is from middleware.</p>
<ul>
    {orders.map(order => {
        return <li>{/* do something with each order */}</li>;
    })}
</ul>

locals is an object that lives and dies within a single Astro route; when your route page is rendered, locals won’t exist anymore and a new one will be created. Information that needs to persist across multiple page requests must be stored elsewhere.

Note

The value of locals cannot be overridden at run time. Doing so would risk wiping out all the information stored by the user. In dev mode, Astro performs checks and will throw an error if locals are overridden.

Example: redacting sensitive information

Section titled Example: redacting sensitive information

The example below uses middleware to replace “PRIVATE INFO” with the word “REDACTED” to allow you to render modified HTML on your page:

src/middleware.js

export const onRequest = async (context, next) => {
    const response = await next();
    const html = await response.text();
    const redactedHtml = html.replaceAll("PRIVATE INFO", "REDACTED");

    return new Response(redactedHtml, {
        status: 200,
        headers: response.headers
    });
};

Middleware types

Section titled Middleware types

You can import and use the utility function defineMiddleware() to take advantage of type safety:

src/middleware.ts

import { defineMiddleware } from "astro:middleware";

// `context` and `next` are automatically typed
export const onRequest = defineMiddleware((context, next) => {

});

Instead, if you’re using JsDoc to take advantage of type safety, you can use MiddlewareHandler:

src/middleware.js

/**
 * @type {import("astro").MiddlewareHandler}
 */
// `context` and `next` are automatically typed
export const onRequest = (context, next) => {

};

To type the information inside Astro.locals, which gives you autocompletion inside .astro files and middleware code, declare a global namespace in the env.d.ts file:

src/env.d.ts

/// <reference path="../.astro/types.d.ts" />

declare namespace App {
    interface Locals {
        user: {
            name: string
        },
        welcomeTitle: () => string,
        orders: Map<string, object>
    }
}

Then, inside the middleware file, you can take advantage of autocompletion and type safety.

Chaining middleware

Section titled Chaining middleware

Multiple middlewares can be joined in a specified order using sequence():

src/middleware.js

import { sequence } from "astro:middleware";

async function validation(_, next) {
    console.log("validation request");
    const response = await next();
    console.log("validation response");
    return response;
}

async function auth(_, next) {
    console.log("auth request");
    const response = await next();
    console.log("auth response");
    return response;
}

async function greeting(_, next) {
    console.log("greeting request");
    const response = await next();
    console.log("greeting response");
    return response;
}

export const onRequest = sequence(validation, auth, greeting);

This will result in the following console order:

validation request
auth request
greeting request
greeting response
auth response
validation response

Rewriting

Section titled Rewriting

Added in: astro@4.13.0

The APIContext exposes a method called rewrite() which works the same way as Astro.rewrite.

Use context.rewrite() inside middleware to display a different page’s content without redirecting your visitor to a new page. This will trigger a new rendering phase, causing any middleware to be re-executed.

src/middleware.js

import { isLoggedIn } from "~/auth.js"
export function onRequest (context, next) {
  if (!isLoggedIn(context)) {
    // If the user is not logged in, update the Request to render the `/login` route and
    // add header to indicate where the user should be sent after a successful login.
    // Re-execute middleware.
    return context.rewrite(new Request("/login", {
      headers: {
        "x-redirect-to": context.url.pathname
      }
    }));
  }

  return next();
};

You can also pass the next() function an optional URL path parameter to rewrite the current Request without retriggering a new rendering phase. The location of the rewrite path can be provided as a string, URL, or Request:

src/middleware.js

import { isLoggedIn } from "~/auth.js"
export function onRequest (context, next) {
  if (!isLoggedIn(context)) {
    // If the user is not logged in, update the Request to render the `/login` route and
    // add header to indicate where the user should be sent after a successful login.
    // Return a new `context` to any following middlewares.
    return next(new Request("/login", {
      headers: {
        "x-redirect-to": context.url.pathname
      }
    }));
  }

  return next();
};

The next() function accepts the same payload of the Astro.rewrite() function. The location of the rewrite path can be provided as a string, URL, or Request.

When you have multiple middleware functions chained via sequence(), submitting a path to next() will rewrite the Request in place and the middleware will not execute again. The next middleware function in the chain will receive the new Request with its updated context:

src/middleware.js

// Current URL is https://example.com/blog

// First middleware function
async function first(_, next) {
  console.log(context.url.pathname) // this will log "/blog"
  // Rewrite to a new route, the homepage
  // Return updated `context` which is passed to next function
  return next("/")
}

// Current URL is still https://example.com/blog

// Second middleware function
async function second(context, next) {
  // Receives updated `context`
  console.log(context.url.pathname) // this will log  "/"
  return next()
}

export const onRequest = sequence(first, second);

Error pages

Section titled Error pages

Middleware will attempt to run for all on-demand rendered pages, even when a matching route cannot be found. This includes Astro’s default (blank) 404 page and any custom 404 pages. However, it is up to the adapter to decide whether that code runs. Some adapters may serve a platform-specific error page instead.

Middleware will also attempt to run before serving a 500 error page, including a custom 500 page, unless the server error occured in the execution of the middleware itself. If your middleware does not run successfully, then you will not have access to Astro.locals to render your 500 page.