---
title: Node.js agent URL obfuscation
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/url-obfuscation/configure-url-obfuscation-nodejs
---

With our Node.js APM agent, you can obfuscate URLs in distributed traces and transaction traces using a regex pattern to protect sensitive data. This feature is available in the [Node.js agent v9.9.0+](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/release-notes/agent-release-notes/nodejs-release-notes/).

## Enable URL obfuscation [#enable-url-obfuscation]

To enable URL obfuscation, add the following snippet to your agent configuration:

```js
url_obfuscation: {
  enabled: true,
  regex: {
    pattern: '{your regex pattern}',
    flags: '{regex flags}'}',
    replacement: '{replacement string}'
  }
}

```

Or using environment variables:

```bash
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_ENABLED=true
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_REGEX_PATTERN={your regex pattern}
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_REGEX_FLAGS={regex flags}
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_REGEX_REPLACEMENT={replacement string}

```

Flags are optional. If you don’t specify them, the agent won’t use them.
Although we recommend using a replacement pattern, using a replacement pattern is optional. If you don’t specify it, the agent will use the default replacement pattern, which is an empty string (`''`).

## Example configuration [#example-configuration]

```js
url_obfuscation: {
  enabled: true,
  regex: {
    pattern: /(\/api\/v1\/users\/)([\d]+)(\/.*$)/,
    flags: "i",
    replacement: '$1<DNT>**$3'
  }
}

```

This configuration will obfuscate URLs that match an example url of `/api/v1/users/12345456/edit` and replace all the digits in the middle of the URL with `**</DNT>` (two asterisks). The resulting URL will be `/api/v1/users/**/edit`.

## Example configuration with environment variables [#example-configuration-with-environment-variables]

```bash
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_ENABLED=true
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_REGEX_PATTERN=(/api/v1/users/)([\d]+)(/.*$)
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_REGEX_FLAGS=i
NEW_RELIC_URL_OBFUSCATION_REGEX_REPLACEMENT=$1**$3

```

## Obfuscation rules [#obfuscation-rules]

The agent will obfuscate URLs that match the regex pattern you provide. The agent will not obfuscate URLs that don’t match the regex pattern. If you don’t provide a regex pattern, the agent will not obfuscate any URLs. If you don’t provide a replacement pattern, the agent will replace the matched pattern with an empty string. If you don’t provide any flags, the agent will not use any flags.