The WorkOS library for Node.js provides convenient access to the WorkOS API from applications written in server-side JavaScript.
See the API Reference for Node.js usage examples.
Node 22.11 or higher.
Install the package with:
npm install @workos-inc/node
To use the library you must provide an API key, located in the WorkOS dashboard, as an environment variable WORKOS_API_KEY:
WORKOS_API_KEY="sk_1234"Or, you can set it on your own before your application starts:
import{WorkOS}from'@workos-inc/node';constworkos=newWorkOS('sk_1234');The SDK automatically retries requests that fail with a transient error — a
network error, a request timeout (408), a rate limit (429), or a server error
(500, 502, 503, 504) — using exponential backoff with jitter. When the API
responds with a Retry-After header, the SDK waits for that duration instead
(capped at 60 seconds). Retried POST requests are automatically assigned an
Idempotency-Key header (unless one is already set) so a retried write is not
applied twice.
The default is 3 retries. Configure it client-wide, or per request on the low-level HTTP methods:
// Client-wide: up to 5 retries per requestconstworkos=newWorkOS('sk_1234',{maxRetries: 5});// Per-request override: disable retries for this call onlyawaitworkos.get('/organizations',{maxRetries: 0});Set maxRetries: 0 to disable automatic retries entirely.
For apps that can't securely store secrets, initialize with just a client ID:
import{WorkOS}from'@workos-inc/node';constworkos=newWorkOS({clientId: 'client_...'});// No API key needed// Generate auth URL with automatic PKCEconst{ url, codeVerifier }=awaitworkos.userManagement.getAuthorizationUrlWithPKCE({provider: 'authkit',redirectUri: 'myapp://callback',clientId: 'client_...',});// After user authenticates, exchange code for tokensconst{ accessToken, refreshToken }=awaitworkos.userManagement.authenticateWithCode({code: authorizationCode,
codeVerifier,clientId: 'client_...',});Important
Store codeVerifier securely on-device between generating the auth URL and handling the callback. For mobile apps, use platform secure storage (iOS Keychain, Android Keystore). For CLI apps, consider OS credential storage. The verifier must survive app restarts during the auth flow.
See the AuthKit documentation for details on PKCE authentication.
Server-side apps can also use PKCE alongside the client secret for defense in depth (recommended by OAuth 2.1):
constworkos=newWorkOS('sk_...');// With API key// Use PKCE even with API key for additional securityconst{ url, codeVerifier }=awaitworkos.userManagement.getAuthorizationUrlWithPKCE({provider: 'authkit',redirectUri: 'https://example.com/callback',clientId: 'client_...',});// Both client_secret AND code_verifier will be sentconst{ accessToken }=awaitworkos.userManagement.authenticateWithCode({code: authorizationCode,
codeVerifier,clientId: 'client_...',});For our SDKs WorkOS follows a Semantic Versioning (SemVer) process where all releases will have a version X.Y.Z (like 1.0.0) pattern wherein Z would be a bug fix (e.g., 1.0.1), Y would be a minor release (1.1.0) and X would be a major release (2.0.0). We permit any breaking changes to only be released in major versions and strongly recommend reading changelogs before making any major version upgrades.
WorkOS has features in Beta that can be accessed via Beta releases. We would love for you to try these and share feedback with us before these features reach general availability (GA). To install a Beta version, please follow the installation steps above using the Beta release version.
Note: there can be breaking changes between Beta versions. Therefore, we recommend pinning the package version to a specific version. This way you can install the same version each time without breaking changes unless you are intentionally looking for the latest Beta version.
We highly recommend keeping an eye on when the Beta feature you are interested in goes from Beta to stable so that you can move to using the stable version.