Helmet
Express middleware that sets HTTP security headers to prevent vulnerabilities.
Auth and security libraries npm MIT
Used in agent projects
125
1.0% of 12,697 public repos built with AI coding agents
Rank in auth and security libraries
#8 of 47
by use in those projects
Downloads
16.2M
npm, last 7 days, helmet
GitHub stars
10.7K
last push Oct 4, 2026
How Helmet is used
Helmet is a dependency in 125 of the 12,697 public GitHub projects set up for AI coding agents that we scanned (1.0%), #8 of 47 in auth and security libraries. The most used alternative there is NextAuth.js. Projects that use it most often also use Express (90.4%), dotenv (82.4%), cors (74.4%). It is more common in projects set up for Devin Desktop (8.4%) than for OpenAI Codex (1.1%).
Often used with Helmet
| Express | 90.4% of Helmet projects · 14.0× more than average |
|---|---|
| dotenv | 82.4% of Helmet projects · 5.2× more than average |
| cors | 74.4% of Helmet projects · 22.4× more than average |
| jsonwebtoken | 53.6% of Helmet projects · 28.2× more than average |
| express-rate-limit | 52.8% of Helmet projects · 63.8× more than average |
| tsx | 40.8% of Helmet projects · 4.1× more than average |
| Jest | 40.0% of Helmet projects · 7.2× more than average |
| SuperTest | 39.2% of Helmet projects · 36.3× more than average |
By coding agent
| Claude Code | 1.7% of projects set up for it |
|---|---|
| Cursor | 1.9% of projects set up for it |
| GitHub Copilot | 1.5% of projects set up for it |
| Devin Desktop | 8.4% of projects set up for it |
| Gemini CLI | 2.1% of projects set up for it |
| Kiro | 4.8% of projects set up for it |
| OpenCode | 1.9% of projects set up for it |
| OpenAI Codex | 1.1% of projects set up for it |
Share of public repos configured for each agent that list Helmet as a dependency.
Install
| Package | npm install helmet |
|---|---|
| Main stacks | TypeScript / JavaScript (97), Next.js (12), Python (10), Rust (3) |
| Example projects | nirholas/universal-crypto-mcp, alkem-io/server, Hive-Academy/ptah-extension, SurfSolana/SolSurfer, gopaljilab/Clinical-Insight-Engine |
Alternatives to Helmet
| Tool | Used in agent projects | Downloads / wk | GitHub stars | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NextAuth.js npm Complete open-source authentication solution designed for Next.js applications. |
266 (2.1%) | 6.7M | 28.4K | ISC |
| bcryptjs npm Pure JavaScript bcrypt implementation for secure password hashing without dependencies. |
256 (2.0%) | 14.7M | 3,797 | BSD-3-Clause |
| jsonwebtoken npm Create, verify and decode JSON Web Tokens for authentication and secure data transmission. |
241 (1.9%) | 59.3M | 18.2K | MIT |
| cryptography pypi Python library providing cryptographic recipes and primitives for secure applications. |
213 (1.7%) | 281M | 7,803 | — |
| jose npm Comprehensive JWT and JWK handling for Node.js and web runtimes. |
141 (1.1%) | 151M | 7,824 | MIT |
| PyJWT pypi Python library for encoding and decoding JSON Web Tokens. |
128 (1.0%) | 154M | 5,714 | — |
| Better Auth npm Comprehensive authentication framework for TypeScript with multiple strategies. |
126 (1.0%) | 11.4M | 30.2K | MIT |
| Privy Auth npm React authentication SDK enabling Web2 and Web3 logins with embedded wallets. |
107 (0.8%) | 430K | — | Apache-2.0 |