diff --git a/js/apps/system/_admin/aardvark/APP/aardvark.js b/js/apps/system/_admin/aardvark/APP/aardvark.js
index 93fb9430d0..2b3652454a 100644
--- a/js/apps/system/_admin/aardvark/APP/aardvark.js
+++ b/js/apps/system/_admin/aardvark/APP/aardvark.js
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ controller.allRoutes
 
 controller.apiDocumentation('/api', {
   swaggerJson(req, res) {
-    var filename = applicationContext.foxxFilename('api-docs.json');
+    var filename = applicationContext.fileName('api-docs.json');
     res.sendFile(filename, {lastModified: true});
   }
 });
diff --git a/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/base_middleware.js b/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/base_middleware.js
index 266954b63d..897ad5d3f0 100644
--- a/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/base_middleware.js
+++ b/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/base_middleware.js
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ function BaseMiddleware() {
 ///
 /// ```js
 /// response.sendFile('/tmp/results.json');
-/// response.sendFile(applicationContext.foxxFilename('image.png'), { lastModified: true });
+/// response.sendFile(applicationContext.fileName('image.png'), { lastModified: true });
 /// ```
 /// @endDocuBlock
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
diff --git a/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/service.js b/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/service.js
index 2f72de497e..4a775cc000 100644
--- a/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/service.js
+++ b/js/server/modules/@arangodb/foxx/service.js
@@ -25,10 +25,18 @@ class AppContext {
     });
   }
 
-  foxxFilename(filename) {
+  fileName(filename) {
     return fs.safeJoin(this._prefix, filename);
   }
 
+  file(filename, encoding) {
+    return fs.readFileSync(this.fileName(filename), encoding);
+  }
+
+  foxxFilename(filename) {
+    return this.fileName(filename);
+  }
+
   path(name) {
     return path.join(this._prefix, name);
   }