Proxy example behavior not working in nodejs environment (corporate network proxy)

[eduardpaul]

What version of PnPjs library you are using

4.x

Minor Version Number

4.14.0

Target environment

NodeJS

Additional environment details

• Node.js v22 backend
• Proxy required for internet access
• Custom token provider using MSAL (already working)
• Proxy setup using https-proxy-agent

Question/Request

Hi all! 👋 We’re using @pnp/pnpjs in a Node.js backend environment, which requires a proxy to access external services like Microsoft Graph and SharePoint APIs.

We were happy to find the proxy configuration example in the documentation, and implemented it using the same https-proxy-agent that we already use successfully for other connections. However, upon testing, we started encountering network-related errors (ENOTFOUND) when making requests to the Graph API.

After some investigation, we discovered that the proxy example relies on configuring the HTTPS agent in the native fetch implementation. However, the native Node.js fetch API does not support custom agent configuration.
See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72306101/make-a-request-in-native-fetch-with-proxy-in-nodejs-18

The workaround: We resolved the issue by re-implementing the NodeFetchWithRetry behavior using the node-fetch package, as it was done previously: 3cf4c77

At this point, i'm not sure if going back to node-fetch makes sense:

• Node.js >= 24 is expected to support proxy configuration via environment variables with native fetch (may 2025 🙃)
• Node.js >= 18 It might make sense to revert to node-fetch for now, at least until Node.js 24 is widely adopted.
• MSALjs has a very similar issue with proxies, so even fixing the proxy behavior example, will require additional steps to make pnpjs node package to work behind proxy.

It would be nice to have a little feedback on this...

[bcameron1231]

Hi! Thanks for the detailed write-up — it's really helpful context.

As a team, we’ve been trying to reduce external dependencies where possible, and the introduction of native fetch in Node.js was a major factor in our decision to remove node-fetch from the library (as you noted).

We’re currently actively working on PnPjs v5 and aiming to support the latest LTS version of Node.js. With Node 24 on the horizon - and proxy support via environment variables planned, there is potential that we may be able to support the new proxy configuration within V5. Currently we are planning Node 22, but if there's an LTS of 24 by release, we'll try and target that.

In the meantime, your approach of re-implementing the NodeFetchWithRetry behavior using node-fetch is totally valid and what we’d recommend at this time. While we don’t plan to reintroduce node-fetch as a dependency ourselves, it’s perfectly fine for consumers of the library to use it as needed.

Thanks again for raising this - and definitely keep an eye on v5 updates as we move forward. We’ll aim to make the proxy guidance clearer within our docs. In addition, the upgrade to v5 shouldn't be too difficult, so that transition would be relatively painless.

[Jose-aph]

What version of PnPjs library you are using

4.x

Minor Version Number

4.14.0

Target environment

NodeJS

Additional environment details

• Node.js v22 backend
• Proxy required for internet access
• Custom token provider using MSAL (already working)
• Proxy setup using https-proxy-agent

Question/Request

Hi all! 👋 We’re using @pnp/pnpjs in a Node.js backend environment, which requires a proxy to access external services like Microsoft Graph and SharePoint APIs.

We were happy to find the proxy configuration example in the documentation, and implemented it using the same https-proxy-agent that we already use successfully for other connections. However, upon testing, we started encountering network-related errors (ENOTFOUND) when making requests to the Graph API.

After some investigation, we discovered that the proxy example relies on configuring the HTTPS agent in the native fetch implementation. However, the native Node.js fetch API does not support custom agent configuration. See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72306101/make-a-request-in-native-fetch-with-proxy-in-nodejs-18

The workaround: We resolved the issue by re-implementing the NodeFetchWithRetry behavior using the node-fetch package, as it was done previously: 3cf4c77

At this point, i'm not sure if going back to node-fetch makes sense:

• Node.js >= 24 is expected to support proxy configuration via environment variables with native fetch (may 2025 🙃)
• Node.js >= 18 It might make sense to revert to node-fetch for now, at least until Node.js 24 is widely adopted.
• MSALjs has a very similar issue with proxies, so even fixing the proxy behavior example, will require additional steps to make pnpjs node package to work behind proxy.

It would be nice to have a little feedback on this...

Thanks a lot!! Really useful!!

[bcameron1231]

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