AuthForge Node.js SDK

Official Node.js SDK for AuthForge: credit-based license key authentication with Ed25519-verified responses.

Zero dependencies. Node.js built-ins only. Works on Node.js 18+.

How licensing works

1. Activate: the SDK calls POST /auth/validate once. The server checks revocation, expiry, HWID binding, and credits, then returns an Ed25519-signed session with a TTL.
2. Grace period (default): the app keeps running on that signed session without contacting AuthForge. The SDK periodically re-verifies the signature and expiry locally and fails once the TTL expires. The grace period equals the session TTL: default 24h, and the server clamps requests to 1h to 7d (ttlSeconds).
3. Online check-ins (optional): set onlineHeartbeat: true to have the SDK call POST /auth/heartbeat every heartbeatInterval seconds for fast revocation and concurrent-use detection.

Separately, for machines that can never reach the internet, an operator can mint a signed offline license file (.authforge) in the AuthForge dashboard or Developer API. The SDK verifies it locally with your app public key: see Offline license files.

Features

Everything in this list ships in authforge.mjs today:

• License validation via POST /auth/validate, returning a signed session payload.
• Ed25519 signature verification on every /auth/validate and /auth/heartbeat response; tampered or unsigned responses are rejected. verifyPayloadSignatureEd25519() is also exported for standalone use.
• Key rotation: publicKey accepts a single key, an array of keys, or a comma-separated string. The SDK trusts a signature that matches any key in the list, so you can roll the server-side signing key without breaking deployed clients.
• Nonce anti-replay: a fresh 128-bit nonce is sent on every request and the echoed nonce in the signed payload is checked before the response is accepted.
• HWID fingerprinting: deterministic device hash from MAC + CPU + hostname, with graceful per-component fallback.
• hwidOverride: bind to any identity instead of the machine (for example tg:<id>, discord:<id>).
• Seat enforcement: the server binds each HWID into a license's free slots up to maxHwidSlots; hwidCount / maxHwidSlots are surfaced on the result. A shared (unlimited-seat) key skips per-device binding.
• Grace period by default, optional online check-ins (see Grace period and online check-ins).
• Offline license files (.authforge): loginFromFile() / verifyLicenseFile() verify a cloud-minted, Ed25519-signed file with zero network access for air-gapped machines.
• Self-ban (selfBan()) for anti-tamper response, both pre-session and post-session.
• Configurable grace period (ttlSeconds) with server-side clamping to [3600, 604800].
• App variables / license variables for feature flags and tiered licensing.
• Automatic retries for rate-limited and transient network failures, with a fresh nonce per retry.

Quick Start

Install from npm:

npm install @authforgecc/sdk

Then:

import { AuthForgeClient } from "@authforgecc/sdk";

const client = new AuthForgeClient({
  appId: "YOUR_APP_ID", // from your AuthForge dashboard
  appSecret: "YOUR_APP_SECRET", // from your AuthForge dashboard
  publicKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY", // from your AuthForge dashboard
});

const licenseKey = process.argv[2];

if (await client.login(licenseKey)) {
  console.log("Authenticated!");
  // Your app logic here. The app runs through the grace period by default;
  // no further network calls until the session TTL expires.
} else {
  console.error("Invalid license key.");
  process.exit(1);
}

To enable online check-ins:

const client = new AuthForgeClient({
  appId: "YOUR_APP_ID",
  appSecret: "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
  publicKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY",
  onlineHeartbeat: true,
  heartbeatInterval: 900, // seconds between check-ins
});

You can also copy authforge.mjs directly into your project if you prefer a single-file integration.

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
appId	string	required	Your application ID from the AuthForge dashboard
appSecret	string	required for online APIs; omit / "" for loginFromFile only	Your application secret from the AuthForge dashboard. Do not ship it in air-gapped binaries.
publicKey	string | readonly string[]	required	App Ed25519 public key(s) (base64) from dashboard. Pass one key, an array, or a comma-separated string to trust multiple keys during rotation (see Key rotation).
onlineHeartbeat	boolean	false	Enable online check-ins: periodic /auth/heartbeat calls for fast revocation and concurrent-use detection. When false (the default), the app runs through the grace period without contacting AuthForge.
heartbeatMode	string	none	Deprecated. "SERVER" maps to onlineHeartbeat: true; "LOCAL" maps to the default. See Migrating from heartbeatMode.
heartbeatInterval	number	900	Seconds between checks (online check-ins or local grace period re-verification; minimum 10; default 15 min)
apiBaseUrl	string	https://auth.authforge.cc	API endpoint
onFailure	function	null	Callback (reason: string, error: Error | null) on auth failure; server and heartbeat errors are AuthForgeError with code / transient
requestTimeout	number	15	HTTP request timeout in seconds
ttlSeconds	number | null	null (server default: 86400)	Requested grace period duration (session TTL) in seconds. Server clamps to [3600, 604800] (1h to 7d); preserved across online check-ins.
hwidOverride	string | null	null	Optional custom hardware/subject identifier. When set to a non-empty value, the SDK uses it instead of machine fingerprinting.

Identity-based binding example (Telegram/Discord)

const client = new AuthForgeClient({
  appId: "YOUR_APP_ID",
  appSecret: "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
  publicKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY",
  hwidOverride: `tg:${telegramUserId}`, // or `discord:${discordUserId}`
});

Key rotation

publicKey is a trust list. To rotate the server-side signing key without a flag-day, ship the new key alongside the previous one; the SDK accepts a signature that matches any entry:

const client = new AuthForgeClient({
  appId: "YOUR_APP_ID",
  appSecret: "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
  publicKey: ["NEW_PUBLIC_KEY", "PREVIOUS_PUBLIC_KEY"], // or "NEW,PREVIOUS"
});

client.publicKeys exposes the full trust list; client.publicKey is the first (primary) entry.

Grace period and online check-ins

Grace period (default): after one successful online activate/validate, the app keeps running on the Ed25519-signed session without contacting AuthForge. The SDK re-verifies the cached signature and checks the expiry timestamp locally at the configured interval; when the session TTL expires it triggers failure with session_expired. The grace period equals the session TTL (default 24h, server clamps 1h to 7d via ttlSeconds). It is session continuation, not persistent offline licensing: a mid-session revocation is not picked up until the next online validate or check-in.

Online check-ins (onlineHeartbeat: true): the SDK calls /auth/heartbeat every heartbeatInterval seconds with a fresh nonce, verifies signature + nonce, and triggers failure on invalid session state. Use this when you need fast revocation or concurrent-use detection. A definitive rejection (revoked, hwid_mismatch, blocked, ...) clears the stored session immediately; every other failure (network, rate_limited, system_error, no_credits, unknown codes, unexpected responses) is transient and keeps it until the session TTL runs out. See Background check failures.

Offline license files (.authforge)

For machines that never connect to the internet, the operator mints a signed offline license file in the AuthForge dashboard (License page -> Mint .authforge file) or via POST /v1/licenses/{licenseKey}/offline-files. The file is a standalone Ed25519-signed document; the SDK verifies it with only your app public key and the machine HWID. It never contacts AuthForge and never starts online check-ins. Omit appSecret so the air-gapped binary does not contain the App Secret.

	Grace period (default)	Offline license file
Needs network	Once, at login()	Never on the end machine
What is verified	Signed session from /auth/validate	Signed document minted in the cloud
Lifetime	Session TTL: 1h to 7d	Operator-chosen expiry or lifetime (perpetual licenses only)
Revocation	Picked up at the next online validate / check-in	Not reachable: the file stays valid until its own expiry
Cost	1 credit per login()	1 credit per mint; verifying is free

import { AuthForgeClient } from "@authforgecc/sdk";

const client = new AuthForgeClient({
  appId: "YOUR_APP_ID",
  publicKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY",
  onFailure: (reason, error) => console.error(reason, error?.message),
});

# 1. Write an activation request the operator drops into the mint dialog:
client.writeActivationRequest("./machine.authforge-request");

// 2. Later, authorize from the minted file (path or armored text). No network.
if (client.loginFromFile("./license.authforge")) {
  console.log("Offline license OK until", client.getOfflineLicense().expiresAt ?? "forever");
  console.log(client.getLicenseVariables());
}

Collect the HWID from the same SDK build that will load the file: fingerprints are not portable across SDKs or languages. After loginFromFile(), getSessionKind() returns "offline" ("online" after login(), null when logged out).

verifyLicenseFile() (module export and client method) performs the same checks without touching client state. Failure codes, in check order: bad_armor, bad_signature, unsupported_version, malformed_payload, wrong_app, expired, hwid_mismatch. loginFromFile() reports them through onFailure("offline_login_failed", error) and returns false; it never calls process.exit.

File format (version 1): PEM-style armor with informational headers, a base64 JSON payload (v, appId, licenseKey, jti, kid, issuedAt, expiresAt, hwid policy, optional label/variable snapshots) and a detached Ed25519 signature over the UTF-8 bytes of the base64 payload string - the same contract as /auth/validate. See offline_license_vectors.json for conformance vectors.

Migrating from heartbeatMode

heartbeatMode is deprecated. It still works, but constructing a client with it emits a DeprecationWarning.

• heartbeatMode: "LOCAL" maps to the default: remove the option entirely.
• heartbeatMode: "SERVER" maps to onlineHeartbeat: true.
• If both options are set, either one enables online check-ins: heartbeatMode: "SERVER" is not overridden by onlineHeartbeat: false.

// Before
new AuthForgeClient({ appId, appSecret, publicKey, heartbeatMode: "LOCAL" });
new AuthForgeClient({ appId, appSecret, publicKey, heartbeatMode: "SERVER" });

// After
new AuthForgeClient({ appId, appSecret, publicKey });
new AuthForgeClient({ appId, appSecret, publicKey, onlineHeartbeat: true });

The client.heartbeatMode property is also kept for compatibility: it reads "SERVER" when online check-ins are enabled and "LOCAL" otherwise. Prefer reading client.onlineHeartbeat.

Billing

• 1 login() or validateLicense() call = 1 credit (one /auth/validate debit each).
• 10 online check-ins on the same license = 1 credit (billed every 10th successful check-in). The grace period costs nothing after the initial activate.

A desktop app running 6h/day with online check-ins at a 15-minute interval burns ~3-4 credits/day. /auth/heartbeat is limited to 6 requests/minute per license key, so keep intervals at 10 seconds or higher and pick cadence based on revocation speed needs (revocations always take effect on the next check-in).

Methods

Method	Returns	Description
login(licenseKey)	Promise<boolean>	Activates online: validates the key and stores the signed session (sessionToken, expiresIn, appVariables, licenseVariables)
validateLicense(licenseKey)	Promise<ValidateLicenseResult>	Same /auth/validate + signatures as login; does not store session or start background checks; failures return { valid: false } and never call onFailure or process.exit
selfBan(options?)	Promise<Record<string, unknown>>	Requests /auth/selfban to blacklist HWID/IP and optionally revoke (session-authenticated only)
loginFromFile(pathOrText)	boolean	Authorizes from an offline .authforge file with no network; never starts background checks; failures go to onFailure("offline_login_failed", …)
verifyLicenseFile(pathOrText, options?)	VerifyLicenseFileResult	Verifies a .authforge file with this client's app id / keys / HWID without changing state
getOfflineLicense()	OfflineLicenseSummary | null	Metadata of the offline file in use (jti, expiresAt, hwidPolicy, …)
getSessionKind()	"online" | "offline" | null	Which kind of session the client holds (null when logged out)
getHwid()	string	The HWID this client sends (or hwidOverride); customers share it to receive a bound file
createActivationRequest(options?)	string	Unsigned .authforge-request for this machine. No network, no secret. Hostname omitted unless includeMachineName: true
writeActivationRequest(path, options?)	void	Writes that file as UTF-8
logout()	void	Stops background checks and clears all session/auth state
isAuthenticated()	boolean	true when an active authenticated session exists
getSessionData()	Record<string, unknown> | null	Full decoded payload map
getAppVariables()	Record<string, unknown> | null	App-scoped variables map
getLicenseVariables()	Record<string, unknown> | null	License-scoped variables map

Failure Handling

If authentication fails (login rejected, check-in fails, grace period expired, signature mismatch, etc.), the SDK calls your onFailure callback if one is provided. Without a callback, a transient background check failure (network outage, rate_limited, system_error, ...) writes a one-line warning to stderr and check-ins continue; every other failure (a rejected login(), a definitive check-in answer, the grace period running out) calls process.exit(1) to terminate the process, so your app cannot keep running without a valid license. process.exit does not wait for pending writes, so set onFailure if your app has anything to save.

validateLicense() is different: it never starts background checks, does not mutate the client's stored session, and never invokes onFailure or exits the process. Inspect the returned valid / code fields instead.

Recognized server errors (knownServerErrors): invalid_app, invalid_key, expired, revoked, hwid_mismatch, no_credits, app_burn_cap_reached, blocked, rate_limited, replay_detected, app_disabled, session_expired, revoke_requires_session, bad_request, malformed_request, demo_quota_exceeded, system_error. Codes added to the server later are passed through unchanged.

Request retries are automatic inside the internal HTTP layer:

• rate_limited (or HTTP 429 with no error code): retry after 2s, then 5s (max 3 attempts total)
• no_credits, demo_quota_exceeded, app_burn_cap_reached (also HTTP 429): never retried immediately; a background check tries again on the next interval
• network failure: retry once after 2s
• every retry regenerates a fresh nonce

Background check failures

Background check failures reach onFailure("heartbeat_failed", error), where error is an AuthForgeError:

• error.code: the server's error code from the response body, whatever the HTTP status (revoked, expired, hwid_mismatch, blocked, session_expired, rate_limited, no_credits, system_error, malformed_request, ...; codes this SDK version doesn't know are passed through unchanged), or an SDK code: network_error, timeout, http_error_<status> (non-JSON error body), unexpected_response, signature_mismatch, nonce_mismatch. error.message is the code for server errors, url_error: ... for network failures.
• error.transient / error.fatal: the classification. isTransientError(errorOrCode) is the same check as a function; definitiveErrorCodes is the allowlist and transientErrorCodes lists the named transient codes for reference.

A failed check-in only counts as an AuthForge verdict when its body is {"status": "failed", "error": "<code>"}. Any other failure body (for example {"error": "revoked"} with no status, or {"status": "failed"} with no error, typically from a proxy or captive portal) is reported as unexpected_response, with the raw status/error in error.message.

Kind	Codes	What the SDK does
Definitive (error.fatal)	revoked, expired, hwid_mismatch (the HWID is no longer bound to the license, for example after an HWID reset), blocked (the HWID or IP is blacklisted, or not on the whitelist), session_expired (also raised locally when the grace period runs out), malformed_request, app_disabled, invalid_app, signature_mismatch	Clears the stored session (as logout() does) and stops background checks before calling onFailure, so the grace period cannot keep the app running on it.
Transient (error.transient)	Everything else: network_error, timeout, rate_limited, system_error, no_credits, demo_quota_exceeded, app_burn_cap_reached, bad_request, invalid_key, unexpected_response, every http_error_<status>, unparseable responses and any unrecognized code	Keeps the session and checks in again on the next heartbeatInterval. Once the signed session's TTL has passed, the next transient failure is reported as a definitive session_expired instead.

Transient failures only keep checking in if onFailure returns normally. Without a callback, a transient failure prints AuthForge: background check failed (<code>); retrying next interval to stderr and check-ins continue; a fatal one, including the session_expired a transient failure becomes once the session TTL has passed, still calls process.exit(1). Heartbeat network failures are reported once, as heartbeat_failed with code network_error or timeout, not as a separate network_error reason.

onFailure may safely call logout(), isAuthenticated() or login(): after a definitive failure isAuthenticated() is already false. A check-in that is still in flight when you call logout() or login() is discarded, so a late response never brings the old session back.

To tolerate short outages but shut down on a definitive answer, have the callback signal the rest of your app and let it save and exit:

import process from "node:process";
import { AuthForgeClient, AuthForgeError } from "@authforgecc/sdk";

const licenseLost = new AbortController();

const handleAuthFailure = (reason, error) => {
  if (reason === "heartbeat_failed" && error instanceof AuthForgeError && error.transient) {
    // No verdict on the license (outage, rate limit, credits, proxy): keep
    // running. The SDK retries every heartbeatInterval and reports
    // session_expired (fatal) once the ttlSeconds grace period is used up.
    console.warn(`AuthForge check-in failed (${error.code}), retrying`);
    return;
  }
  // Definitive: the session is already cleared (client.isAuthenticated() === false).
  console.error(`License check failed: ${reason} (${error?.code ?? error?.message})`);
  licenseLost.abort(error); // signal the app instead of exiting here
};

const client = new AuthForgeClient({
  appId: "YOUR_APP_ID",
  appSecret: "YOUR_APP_SECRET",
  publicKey: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY",
  onlineHeartbeat: true,
  ttlSeconds: 3600, // retry window for transient check-in failures
  onFailure: handleAuthFailure,
});

licenseLost.signal.addEventListener(
  "abort",
  async () => {
    await saveUserWork();
    server.close(); // close whatever keeps the event loop alive (servers, intervals, sockets)
    client.logout();
    process.exitCode = 1; // Node exits once nothing is left running
  },
  { once: true },
);

You can also pass licenseLost.signal to APIs that accept an AbortSignal (fetch, setTimeout from node:timers/promises, events.once, ...) so in-flight work stops with it. Calling process.exit(1) inside onFailure is a last resort: it ends the process without waiting for pending writes or finally blocks, so save the user's work first.

Self-ban (tamper response)

Use selfBan() when your anti-tamper checks trip:

// Post-session (authenticated): defaults to revoke + HWID/IP blacklist.
await client.selfBan();

// Pre-session: provide licenseKey, SDK automatically disables revokeLicense.
await client.selfBan({ licenseKey: "AF-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX" });

// Custom flags:
await client.selfBan({
  blacklistHwid: true,
  blacklistIp: true,
  revokeLicense: false,
});

selfBan() selects request mode automatically:

• Uses post-session mode when sessionToken is available (options.sessionToken or current SDK session).
• Falls back to pre-session mode with licenseKey + nonce + app secret.
• In pre-session mode, revoke is always disabled client-side to avoid unsafe key revocations.
• Not available after loginFromFile(): offline sessions have no server session, so selfBan() with no explicit licenseKey / sessionToken rejects with offline_session without contacting the server.

How It Works

1. Activate - Uses hwidOverride if provided; otherwise collects a hardware fingerprint (MAC, CPU, hostname). It then generates a random nonce and sends everything to the AuthForge API via /auth/validate. The server validates the license key, binds the HWID, deducts a credit, and returns a signed payload with a TTL. The SDK verifies the Ed25519 signature and nonce to prevent replay attacks.

2. Background checks - A background interval runs at the configured cadence. With online check-ins enabled, it calls /auth/heartbeat with a fresh nonce and verifies the response. Otherwise it re-verifies the stored signature and checks the grace period expiry without network calls.

3. Crypto - Both /validate and /heartbeat responses are signed by AuthForge with your app's Ed25519 private key. The SDK verifies every signed payload using your configured publicKey and rejects tampered responses.

Hardware ID

The SDK generates a deterministic hardware fingerprint by hashing:

• First non-internal MAC address
• CPU model
• Hostname

Material format: SHA256("mac:<mac>|cpu:<cpu>|host:<hostname>")

Each component falls back to unavailable if it cannot be read.

For non-device identities (for example Telegram users), pass hwidOverride such as tg:<user_id>.

Test Vectors

The shared test_vectors.json file validates cross-language Ed25519 verification behavior. offline_license_vectors.json (generated by generate_offline_vectors.mjs from a fixed test seed) is the cross-SDK conformance suite for .authforge offline license files: good files plus the bad_signature, wrong key, wrong_app, expired, hwid_mismatch, unsupported_version and bad_armor rejects.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• No external packages

License

MIT