@query-params/core

Type-safe, versioned query parameters with compression and encryption – Zero build step required.

Features

✨ Zero build step – Pure runtime solution with Zod schemas
🔒 Server-side encryption – State that's undecodeable in the browser
📦 Automatic compression – Protobuf + zlib for minimal URL size
🔄 Schema versioning – Up/down migrations for seamless upgrades
🎯 Type-safe – Full TypeScript inference via Zod
🚀 URLSearchParams compatible – Drop-in replacement with superpowers
🌐 Universal – Works in browser, Node.js, and edge runtimes
📱 Framework integrations – Built-in support for Next.js, Remix, SvelteKit

Installation

npm install @query-params/core zod

That's it! No build configuration needed.

Quick Start

import { z } from 'zod';
import { createQueryParams } from '@query-params/core';

// Define your schema with Zod
const SearchParams = z.object({
  query: z.string(),
  filters: z.array(z.string()),
  page: z.number()
});

// Create type-safe query params
const params = createQueryParams(SearchParams);

// Use like URLSearchParams
params.set('query', 'typescript');
params.set('filters', ['books', 'articles']);
params.set('page', 1);

// Compressed, URL-safe string
const url = `/search?${params}`;

// Parse it back
const decoded = params.parse(url.split('?')[1]);
// { query: 'typescript', filters: ['books', 'articles'], page: 1 }

Why @encoded-state?

The Problem with URLSearchParams

URLSearchParams works great for simple key-value pairs, but falls apart with complex data:

// Traditional approach with complex filters
const params = new URLSearchParams({
  page: '3',
  pageSize: '50',
  sortBy: 'created_at',
  sortOrder: 'desc',
  filters: JSON.stringify([
    { column: 'status', operator: 'eq', value: 'active' },
    { column: 'revenue', operator: 'gt', value: '1000' }
  ])
});
// Result: 345 characters of URL-encoded mess

❌ JSON-stringified values lose type safety ❌ No compression → long URLs ❌ No versioning → breaking changes hurt users ❌ No nested objects or arrays without hacks

The @encoded-state Solution

const tableState = createQueryParams({
  page: 3,
  pageSize: 50,
  sortBy: 'created_at',
  sortOrder: 'desc' as const,
  filters: [
    { column: 'status', operator: 'eq' as const, value: 'active' },
    { column: 'revenue', operator: 'gt' as const, value: '1000' }
  ]
}, schema);

// Result: 128 characters (63% smaller!)
const url = `/data?state=${tableState}`;

✅ Fully type-safe with TypeScript inference ✅ 29-73% compression vs JSON/URLSearchParams ✅ Schema versioning with migrations ✅ Native support for complex types ✅ Optional encryption for sensitive data

Real-World Examples

E-commerce Product Filters (30% reduction)

Input:

{
  search: 'laptop',
  categories: ['electronics', 'computers'],
  priceRange: { min: 500, max: 2000 },
  brands: ['Dell', 'HP', 'Lenovo'],
  inStock: true,
  rating: 4,
  page: 1
}

Traditional URLSearchParams (163 chars):

search=laptop&categories=electronics,computers&priceRange=%7B%22min%22%3A500%2C%22max%22%3A2000%7D&brands=Dell,HP,Lenovo&inStock=true&rating=4&page=1

@encoded-state (114 chars - 30% smaller):

AXic42LLSSwoyS8Q4k7NSU0uKcrPy0wuFuJMzs8tKC1JLSqWEuJkAAGHegdBCGO-gxKLS2pOjhKTR4ASm09qXn5ZvgajIViSQcDBEsL4YA8ARoAUyg

Pro tip: Use z.number().int() for integers to get better compression!

Map/Dashboard State (30% reduction)

Input:

{
  center: { lat: 37.7749, lng: -122.4194 },
  zoom: 12,
  layers: ['traffic', 'transit', 'bike'],
  filters: {
    dateRange: { start: '2024-01-01', end: '2024-12-31' },
    categories: ['restaurants', 'parks', 'museums']
  },
  selectedMarkers: [101, 205, 308]
}

JSON (235 chars):

{"center":{"lat":37.7749,"lng":-122.4194},"zoom":12,"layers":["traffic","transit","bike"],"filters":{"dateRange":{"start":"2024-01-01","end":"2024-12-31"},"categories":["restaurants","parks","museums"]},"selectedMarkers":[101,205,308]}

@encoded-state (164 chars - 30% smaller):

AXic42QAAw4HQQjD00GKK7koNbEkNSU-sUSBQUuIi624JLGktFiAQYotMbkksyxVS5CLvSi1LDWvNFWAUYrF0MDAwIglLzE31Yg1NTcxM8cIqsMIySQjmA4AZj8dew

Game State Snapshot (44% reduction)

Input:

{
  level: 5,
  score: 12450,
  playerPosition: { x: 123.45, y: 67.89, z: 10.0 },
  inventory: [
    { id: 'sword', quantity: 1 },
    { id: 'potion', quantity: 5 },
    { id: 'gold', quantity: 350 }
  ],
  settings: { difficulty: 'hard', sound: true, music: false },
  checkpointTimestamp: '2024-01-15T10:30:00Z'
}

JSON (277 chars):

{"level":5,"score":12450,"playerPosition":{"x":123.45,"y":67.89,"z":10.0},"inventory":[{"id":"sword","quantity":1},{"id":"potion","quantity":5},{"id":"gold","quantity":350}],"settings":{"difficulty":"hard","sound":true,"music":false},"checkpointTimestamp":"2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"}

@encoded-state (154 chars - 44% smaller):

AXic42QAAxEHQTAdeMJBSprz7JkzZ87ciXMQ1IzpP_T1R4CDJESVioOSABdrcXl-UQpEOcMHeyVBLraC_JLM_DxBmFFK_Fws6fk5UDUPSh202DgYBBglGIxEjAyMTHQNDHUNTUMMDayMDawMDKIAnzEbsA

The Sweet Spot: Complex nested data with arrays and objects = 36-73% size reduction

Optimization Tip: Use z.number().int() for integers to achieve 40-50%+ compression!

Not Ideal For: Simple key-value pairs like ?q=test&page=1 - stick with regular URLSearchParams for those.

Core Use Cases

1. Client-Side State (Public Mode)

Perfect for shareable search filters, pagination, UI state.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { createQueryParams } from '@query-params/core';

const FilterParams = z.object({
  search: z.string(),
  categories: z.array(z.string()),
  priceRange: z.object({
    min: z.number(),
    max: z.number()
  }),
  page: z.number().default(1)
});

const params = createQueryParams(FilterParams);

// Set complex state
params.set('search', 'laptop');
params.set('categories', ['electronics', 'computers']);
params.set('priceRange', { min: 500, max: 2000 });

// Shareable URL
window.history.pushState({}, '', `/products?${params}`);

2. Server-Only State (Secure Mode)

For sensitive data that should never be readable in the browser.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { createSecureQueryParams } from '@query-params/core';

const SecureState = z.object({
  userId: z.string(),
  sessionToken: z.string(),
  permissions: z.array(z.string())
});

// Server-side only (with encryption key)
const params = createSecureQueryParams(SecureState, {
  encryptionKey: process.env.ENCRYPTION_KEY
});

// Encode on server
const token = params.encode({
  userId: '123',
  sessionToken: 'abc',
  permissions: ['read', 'write']
});

// Client gets opaque token - CANNOT decode
res.redirect(`/dashboard?state=${token}`);

// Later, on server - decrypt and decode
const state = params.decode(req.query.state);

3. Schema Versioning & Migrations

Handle breaking changes gracefully with automatic migrations.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { versioned } from '@query-params/core';

// v1: Original schema
const ParamsV1 = z.object({
  query: z.string()
});

// v2: Added filters
const ParamsV2 = z.object({
  query: z.string(),
  filters: z.array(z.string())
});

// Define migrations
const Params = versioned({
  versions: {
    v1: ParamsV1,
    v2: ParamsV2
  },
  migrations: {
    'v1->v2': {
      up: (v1) => ({ ...v1, filters: [] }),
      down: (v2) => ({ query: v2.query })
    }
  }
});

// Current version
const params = Params.create('v2');

// Old v1 URLs still work - automatically migrated
const legacy = params.parse(oldV1EncodedString);
// { query: 'test', filters: [] }

4. URL Shortening

Encode entire route state into short, shareable tokens.

import { z } from 'zod';
import { createRouteEncoder } from '@query-params/core';

const RouteState = z.object({
  path: z.string(),
  params: z.record(z.string()),
  query: z.record(z.any())
});

const encoder = createRouteEncoder(RouteState, {
  encryptionKey: process.env.ENCRYPTION_KEY
});

// Long URL
const longUrl = '/products/123/reviews?sort=date&filter=verified&page=5';

// Encode to short token
const token = encoder.encode({
  path: '/products/123/reviews',
  params: { id: '123' },
  query: { sort: 'date', filter: 'verified', page: 5 }
});

// Short shareable URL
const shortUrl = `/r/${token}`;

Framework Integrations

Next.js (App Router)

import { z } from 'zod';
import { createSecureParams } from '@query-params/nextjs';

const PageState = z.object({
  userId: z.string(),
  filters: z.array(z.string())
});

const params = createSecureParams(PageState);

// Server Action
export async function generateStateUrl(state: z.infer<typeof PageState>) {
  'use server';
  const token = params.encode(state);
  return `/page?state=${token}`;
}

// API Route
export async function GET(request: Request) {
  const token = new URL(request.url).searchParams.get('state');
  const state = params.decode(token);
  return Response.json(state);
}

React Hooks

import { z } from 'zod';
import { useQueryParams } from '@query-params/react';

const Filters = z.object({
  search: z.string(),
  category: z.string().optional()
});

function SearchPage() {
  const [params, setParams] = useQueryParams(Filters);

  return (
    <input
      value={params.get('search')}
      onChange={e => {
        setParams(prev => {
          prev.set('search', e.target.value);
          return prev;
        });
      }}
    />
  );
}

API Reference

`createQueryParams(schema)`

Creates a URLSearchParams-compatible encoder/decoder with compression.

const params = createQueryParams(schema);

// URLSearchParams-compatible methods
params.set(key, value)
params.get(key)
params.has(key)
params.delete(key)
params.append(key, value)
params.entries()
params.keys()
params.values()
params.forEach(callback)

// Convert to string
params.toString() // Returns encoded string
String(params)    // Same as toString()

// Parse from string
params.parse(encoded)

`createSecureQueryParams(schema, options)`

Creates encrypted params that can only be decoded on the server.

const params = createSecureQueryParams(schema, {
  encryptionKey: string  // Required: AES-256 encryption key
});

params.encode(data)  // Returns encrypted token
params.decode(token) // Decrypts and decodes (server only)

`versioned(config)`

Creates a versioned schema with migrations.

const schema = versioned({
  versions: {
    v1: ZodSchema,
    v2: ZodSchema,
    // ...
  },
  migrations: {
    'v1->v2': {
      up: (v1) => v2,    // Upgrade function
      down: (v2) => v1   // Downgrade function
    }
    // ...
  }
});

schema.create(currentVersion)

`createRouteEncoder(schema, options?)`

Encodes entire route information for URL shortening.

const encoder = createRouteEncoder(schema, options);

encoder.encode({ path, params, query })
encoder.decode(token)
encoder.toUrl(routeState)

Additional Packages

@query-params/nextjs - Next.js integration
@query-params/react - React hooks
@query-params/remix - Remix integration
@query-params/sveltekit - SvelteKit integration
@query-params/migrations - Advanced migration utilities
@query-params/router - Route state encoding

How It Works

Schema Definition: Use Zod to define your data structure
Validation: Data is validated against the schema
Serialization: Converts to Protocol Buffers (efficient binary format)
Compression: Applies zlib compression
Encoding: Base64url encoding for URL safety
Optional Encryption: AES-GCM encryption for secure mode

Result: Type-safe, compressed, version-aware query parameters.

Performance

Encoding: <1ms for typical payloads (<1KB)
Bundle Size: ~8KB gzipped (core package)
Compression Ratio: ~60-80% reduction vs plain JSON
URL Length: Stays well under browser limits (~2000 chars)

Browser Support

Chrome/Edge (last 2 versions)
Firefox (last 2 versions)
Safari (last 2 versions)
Node.js 18+
Cloudflare Workers, Vercel Edge, Deno

TypeScript

Requires TypeScript 5.0+. Full type inference via Zod schemas.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

License

Links

Made with ❤️ by the community

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 2 Commits
.github		.github
packages/core		packages/core
tests		tests
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmrc		.npmrc
.prettierrc		.prettierrc
BUILD.md		BUILD.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md		IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
REQUIREMENTS.md		REQUIREMENTS.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
eslint.config.js		eslint.config.js
package.json		package.json
pnpm-lock.yaml		pnpm-lock.yaml
pnpm-workspace.yaml		pnpm-workspace.yaml
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tsup.config.ts		tsup.config.ts
vitest.config.ts		vitest.config.ts

License

saltenasl/query-params

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@query-params/core

Features

Installation

Quick Start

Why @encoded-state?

The Problem with URLSearchParams

The @encoded-state Solution

Real-World Examples

E-commerce Product Filters (30% reduction)

Map/Dashboard State (30% reduction)

Game State Snapshot (44% reduction)

Core Use Cases

1. Client-Side State (Public Mode)

2. Server-Only State (Secure Mode)

3. Schema Versioning & Migrations

4. URL Shortening

Framework Integrations

Next.js (App Router)

React Hooks

API Reference

createQueryParams(schema)

createSecureQueryParams(schema, options)

versioned(config)

createRouteEncoder(schema, options?)

Additional Packages

How It Works

Performance

Browser Support

TypeScript

Contributing

License

Links

About

Resources

License

Contributing

Security policy

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`createQueryParams(schema)`

`createSecureQueryParams(schema, options)`

`versioned(config)`

`createRouteEncoder(schema, options?)`

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