Headers & Authentication in JavaScript

From the Fetch API cheat sheet ยท Request Configuration ยท verified Jul 2026

Headers & Authentication

Working with headers and authentication tokens

javascript
// Headers object
const headers = new Headers()
headers.append('Content-Type', 'application/json')
headers.set('Authorization', 'Bearer token123')
headers.get('Content-Type') // 'application/json'
headers.has('Authorization') // true
headers.delete('X-Custom')

// Headers in request
const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Bearer token123',
    'X-API-Key': 'secret-key',
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US',
    'User-Agent': 'MyApp/1.0'
  }
})

// Headers from response
const contentType = response.headers.get('content-type')
const lastModified = response.headers.get('last-modified')
const customHeader = response.headers.get('x-custom-header')

// Iterate over headers
for (const [key, value] of response.headers.entries()) {
  console.log(\`\${key}: \${value}\`)
}
๐Ÿ” Store tokens securely, never in code or URLs
๐Ÿ’ก Headers object provides better API than plain objects
โšก Implement token refresh for seamless authentication
๐Ÿ“Œ Some headers are forbidden and cannot be set

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