Alex Spinov

Posted on Mar 28

Encore Has a Free API: Build Type-Safe Cloud Backends with Zero Infrastructure Boilerplate

#typescript #cloud #backend #tutorial

What is Encore?

Encore is a backend development platform that uses static analysis to understand your application and automatically provision infrastructure. You write TypeScript (or Go) — Encore handles AWS/GCP resources, networking, and observability.

No Terraform. No Docker. No YAML. Just code.

Quick Start

npm install -g encore.dev
encore app create my-app --lang=ts
cd my-app
encore run

Define APIs

// backend/hello/hello.ts
import { api } from "encore.dev/api";

interface HelloResponse {
  message: string;
}

export const world = api(
  { method: "GET", path: "/hello/:name", expose: true },
  async ({ name }: { name: string }): Promise<HelloResponse> => {
    return { message: `Hello ${name}!` };
  }
);

Encore generates:

API documentation
Request/response validation
Distributed tracing
API gateway with auth middleware

Databases (Zero Config)

import { SQLDatabase } from "encore.dev/storage/sqldb";

const db = new SQLDatabase("users", {
  migrations: "./migrations",
});

export const getUser = api(
  { method: "GET", path: "/users/:id" },
  async ({ id }: { id: string }) => {
    const user = await db.queryRow`
      SELECT id, name, email FROM users WHERE id = ${id}
    `;
    return user;
  }
);

export const createUser = api(
  { method: "POST", path: "/users" },
  async ({ name, email }: { name: string; email: string }) => {
    const result = await db.exec`
      INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (${name}, ${email})
      RETURNING id
    `;
    return { id: result.id };
  }
);

Encore automatically creates a PostgreSQL database — locally for dev, managed RDS/Cloud SQL for production.

Pub/Sub

import { Topic, Subscription } from "encore.dev/pubsub";

interface OrderEvent {
  orderId: string;
  userId: string;
  total: number;
}

export const orderTopic = new Topic<OrderEvent>("orders", {
  deliveryGuarantee: "at-least-once",
});

// Publish
await orderTopic.publish({
  orderId: "ord_123",
  userId: "usr_456",
  total: 99.99,
});

// Subscribe
new Subscription(orderTopic, "process-order", {
  handler: async (event) => {
    console.log(`Processing order ${event.orderId}`);
    // Send email, update inventory, etc.
  },
});

Cron Jobs

import { CronJob } from "encore.dev/cron";

new CronJob("cleanup-expired", {
  title: "Clean up expired sessions",
  schedule: "0 * * * *", // Every hour
  endpoint: cleanup,
});

const cleanup = api(
  { method: "POST", path: "/internal/cleanup" },
  async () => {
    await db.exec`DELETE FROM sessions WHERE expires_at < NOW()`;
    return { status: "done" };
  }
);

Auth Middleware

import { authHandler } from "encore.dev/auth";
import { Header } from "encore.dev/api";

interface AuthParams {
  authorization: Header<"Authorization">;
}

interface AuthData {
  userId: string;
  role: string;
}

export const auth = authHandler(async (params: AuthParams): Promise<AuthData> => {
  const token = params.authorization.replace("Bearer ", "");
  const decoded = verifyJWT(token);
  return { userId: decoded.sub, role: decoded.role };
});

// Protected endpoint
export const getProfile = api(
  { method: "GET", path: "/profile", auth: true },
  async (_, { userId }: AuthData) => {
    return db.queryRow`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${userId}`;
  }
);

Built-in Observability

Encore automatically generates:

Distributed traces for every request
Architecture diagrams from your code
API documentation with request/response types
Performance metrics per endpoint

All visible in the Encore dashboard — no Datadog or Grafana setup needed.

Deploy

# Deploy to Encore Cloud (free tier available)
git push encore

# Or self-host on your own AWS/GCP
encore app deploy --env=production

Need a backend built fast with zero infrastructure headaches?

📧 spinov001@gmail.com
🔧 My tools on Apify Store

Would you trade Terraform for automatic infra? Comment below!

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