service-worker

name

service-worker

description

Service Worker API implementation guide — registration, lifecycle management, caching strategies, push notifications, and background sync. Use when: (1) creating or modifying service worker files (sw.js), (2) implementing offline-first caching (cache-first, network-first, stale-while-revalidate), (3) setting up push notifications or background sync, (4) debugging service worker registration, scope, or update issues, (5) implementing navigation preload, (6) user mentions 'service worker', 'sw.js', 'offline support', 'cache strategy', 'push notification', 'background sync', 'workbox alternative', or 'PWA caching'.

Service Worker

Table of Contents

• Constraints
• Lifecycle
• Registration
• Install / Activate / Fetch Events
• Common Pitfalls
• Next.js Integration
• Reference files

Constraints

• HTTPS required (localhost exempt for dev)
• No DOM access — runs on separate thread
• Fully async — no synchronous XHR, no localStorage
• No dynamic import() — only static import statements
• Scope defaults to the directory containing the SW file
• self refers to ServiceWorkerGlobalScope

<quick_reference>

Lifecycle

register() → Download → Install → [Wait] → Activate → Fetch control

1. Register from main thread via navigator.serviceWorker.register()
2. Install event fires once — use to pre-cache static assets
3. Wait — new SW waits until all tabs using old SW are closed (skip with self.skipWaiting())
4. Activate event fires — use to clean up old caches
5. Fetch events start flowing — SW controls page network requests

A document must reload to be controlled (or call clients.claim() during activate).

Updating a Service Worker

• Browser byte-compares the SW file on each navigation (or every 24h)
• New version installs in background while old version still serves
• Increment the cache name (e.g., v1 → v2) in the new version
• Delete old caches in the activate handler
• Call self.skipWaiting() in install to activate immediately
• Call self.clients.claim() in activate to take control of open pages

DevTools

• Chrome: chrome://inspect/#service-workers or Application > Service Workers
• Firefox: about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox or Application > Service Workers
• Edge: edge://inspect/#service-workers or Application > Service Workers

Unregister, update, and inspect caches from the Application panel. Use "Update on reload" checkbox during development.

</quick_reference>

Registration

// main.js — register from the page
if ("serviceWorker" in navigator) {
  const reg = await navigator.serviceWorker.register("/sw.js", { scope: "/" });
  // reg.installing | reg.waiting | reg.active
}

Scope rules:

• SW at /sw.js can control / and all subpaths
• SW at /app/sw.js can only control /app/ by default
• Broaden scope with Service-Worker-Allowed response header

Install Event — Pre-cache Assets

// sw.js
const CACHE_NAME = "v1";
const PRECACHE_URLS = ["/", "/index.html", "/style.css", "/app.js"];

self.addEventListener("install", (event) => {
  event.waitUntil(caches.open(CACHE_NAME).then((cache) => cache.addAll(PRECACHE_URLS)));
});

waitUntil(promise) — keeps install phase alive until the promise settles. If rejected, installation fails and the SW won't activate.

Activate Event — Clean Up Old Caches

self.addEventListener("activate", (event) => {
  event.waitUntil(
    caches
      .keys()
      .then((keys) =>
        Promise.all(keys.filter((key) => key !== CACHE_NAME).map((key) => caches.delete(key))),
      ),
  );
});

Fetch Event — Intercept Requests

self.addEventListener("fetch", (event) => {
  event.respondWith(caches.match(event.request).then((cached) => cached || fetch(event.request)));
});

respondWith(promise) — must be called synchronously (within the event handler, not in a microtask). The promise resolves to a Response.

For caching strategy patterns (cache-first, network-first, stale-while-revalidate), see references/caching-strategies.md.

Navigation Preload

Avoid the startup delay when a SW boots to handle a navigation:

self.addEventListener("activate", (event) => {
  event.waitUntil(self.registration?.navigationPreload.enable());
});

self.addEventListener("fetch", (event) => {
  event.respondWith(
    (async () => {
      const cached = await caches.match(event.request);
      if (cached) return cached;

      const preloaded = await event.preloadResponse;
      if (preloaded) return preloaded;

      return fetch(event.request);
    })(),
  );
});

Communicating with Pages

// Page → SW
navigator.serviceWorker.controller.postMessage({ type: "SKIP_WAITING" });

// SW → Page (via Clients API)
const clients = await self.clients.matchAll({ type: "window" });
clients.forEach((client) => client.postMessage({ type: "UPDATED" }));

// SW listens
self.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
  if (event.data?.type === "SKIP_WAITING") self.skipWaiting();
});

Next.js Integration

In Next.js, place the service worker file in public/sw.js. public/sw.js is intentionally plain JS (not processed by Next.js build pipeline). Register it from a client component:

"use client";
import { useEffect } from "react";

export function ServiceWorkerRegistrar() {
  useEffect(() => {
    if ("serviceWorker" in navigator) {
      navigator.serviceWorker.register("/sw.js");
    }
  }, []);
  return null;
}

Add to root layout. Next.js serves public/ files at the root, so /sw.js scope covers /.

Common Pitfalls

1. Response cloning — response.clone() before both caching and returning, since body streams can only be read once
2. Opaque responses — cross-origin fetches without CORS return opaque responses (status 0). cache.add() will refuse them. Use cache.put() but you can't inspect the response
3. waitUntil timing — call event.waitUntil() synchronously within the event handler, not inside an async callback
4. Scope ceiling — a SW cannot control URLs above its own directory unless Service-Worker-Allowed header is set
5. No state persistence — the SW may terminate at any time when idle. Don't store state in global variables — use Cache API or IndexedDB

Reference files

• Caching strategies (cache-first, network-first, stale-while-revalidate): references/caching-strategies.md
• Push notifications & background sync (push subscription, push events, background sync): references/push-and-sync.md
• API quick reference (Cache, CacheStorage, FetchEvent, Clients, ServiceWorkerRegistration, ServiceWorkerGlobalScope): references/api-reference.md