WebSocket Skill

Expert assistance for implementing WebSocket real-time communication.

Capabilities

• Implement WebSocket servers
• Handle connection lifecycle
• Build pub/sub patterns
• Scale with Redis adapter
• Implement reconnection logic
• Handle authentication

Usage

Invoke this skill when you need to:

• Add real-time features
• Build chat applications
• Implement live updates
• Handle bidirectional communication

Server Implementation

import { WebSocketServer, WebSocket } from 'ws';
import { createServer } from 'http';

const server = createServer();
const wss = new WebSocketServer({ server });

const clients = new Map<string, WebSocket>();

wss.on('connection', (ws, req) => {
  const userId = authenticateConnection(req);
  clients.set(userId, ws);

  ws.on('message', (data) => {
    const message = JSON.parse(data.toString());
    handleMessage(userId, message);
  });

  ws.on('close', () => {
    clients.delete(userId);
  });
});

function broadcast(message: object) {
  const data = JSON.stringify(message);
  clients.forEach((client) => {
    if (client.readyState === WebSocket.OPEN) {
      client.send(data);
    }
  });
}

Best Practices

• Implement heartbeat/ping-pong
• Handle reconnection gracefully
• Use message queues for scaling
• Authenticate connections

Target Processes

• real-time-features
• chat-application
• live-updates