Fastify
July 20, 2026 · View on GitHub
The Fastify plugin simplifies integrating ALTCHA into your application. It provides routes and middleware for challenge generation and verification.
Handlers
challengeHandler— Generates a new challenge. Configure this endpoint as the widget’schallengeURL.verifyHandler— Optional handler for server-side verification. Useful when external services need to verify a payload.
Middleware
The middleware automatically handles verification during requests.
Features:
- Validates the payload from the request body or a configured cookie.
- Sets
request.altcha: AltchaResult, which includes the challenge data and verification result.
Options:
throwOnFailure: boolean— Whether to throw an error on verification failure (default:true).
Store
The store marks challenges as used to prevent reuse.
See /docs/store.md for details.
Remote verification (Sentinel)
Pass a verifyServer option to verify Sentinel-issued payloads remotely via Sentinel's
/v1/verify/signature API instead of locally with hmacSignatureSecret.
See /docs/server-signatures.md#remote-verification-sentinel-api for details.
Example
Usage
1. Configure ALTCHA
import { create, deriveHmacKeySecret, randomInt, CappedMap } from 'altcha-lib/frameworks/fastify';
import { deriveKey } from 'altcha-lib/algorithms/pbkdf2';
// Define your HMAC secret
const HMAC_SECRET = 'secret.key';
const altcha = create({
// Verification HMAC secrets
hmacSignatureSecret: HMAC_SECRET,
hmacKeySignatureSecret: await deriveHmacKeySecret(HMAC_SECRET),
// Adjust challenge parameters
createChallengeParameters: () => {
return {
algorithm: 'PBKDF2/SHA-256',
// Adjust cost and counter depending on the algorithm
cost: 5_000,
counter: randomInt(5_000, 10_000),
expiresAt: new Date(Date.now() + 600_000), // 10 minutes
};
},
// Key derivation function for the selected algorithm
deriveKey,
// Use a cookie instead of form data to send the payload
setCookie: {
name: 'altcha',
path: '/',
},
// In distributed environments, use Redis or another shared store
store: new CappedMap<string, boolean>({
maxSize: 1_000,
}),
});
2. Mount the challenge routes
const app = express();
// Mount the /altcha/challenge and /altcha/verify routes
app.get('/altcha/challenge', altcha.challengeHandler);
app.post('/altcha/verify', altcha.verifyHandler);
3. Protect routes with middleware
// Apply ALTCHA middleware for automatic verification
app.post(
'/submit',
{ preHandler: altcha.middleware() },
async (request, reply) => {
return reply.send({
altcha: request.altcha,
body: request.body,
});
}
);