Nitro Has a Free API: The Universal Server Engine Behind Nuxt That Runs Everywhere

#nitro #nuxt #serverless #api

Nitro is the server engine that powers Nuxt 3 — but it works standalone too. Write server code once, deploy to Node.js, Deno, Bun, Cloudflare Workers, AWS Lambda, Vercel, Netlify, or any serverless platform.

Why Nitro?

Universal — same code deploys to 20+ platforms
Auto-imports — no import statements needed
File-based routing — like Next.js but for APIs
Built-in caching — SWR, storage drivers
Hot reload — instant dev server refresh

Quick Start

npx giget@latest nitro my-api
cd my-api
npm install
npm run dev  # http://localhost:3000

File-Based API Routes

// server/routes/hello.ts
export default defineEventHandler(() => {
  return { message: 'Hello from Nitro!' };
});
// GET /hello → {"message": "Hello from Nitro!"}

// server/routes/users/index.get.ts
export default defineEventHandler(async () => {
  const users = await db.select().from(usersTable);
  return users;
});
// GET /users

// server/routes/users/index.post.ts
export default defineEventHandler(async (event) => {
  const body = await readBody(event);
  const user = await db.insert(usersTable).values(body).returning();
  return user;
});
// POST /users

// server/routes/users/[id].get.ts
export default defineEventHandler(async (event) => {
  const id = getRouterParam(event, 'id');
  const user = await db.select().from(usersTable).where(eq(usersTable.id, id));
  if (!user.length) throw createError({ statusCode: 404, message: 'Not found' });
  return user[0];
});
// GET /users/:id

Middleware

// server/middleware/auth.ts
export default defineEventHandler((event) => {
  const token = getHeader(event, 'authorization');
  if (!token && event.path.startsWith('/api/protected')) {
    throw createError({ statusCode: 401, message: 'Unauthorized' });
  }
});

// server/middleware/cors.ts
export default defineEventHandler((event) => {
  setHeaders(event, {
    'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
    'Access-Control-Allow-Methods': 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE',
  });
});

Caching

// server/routes/cached-data.ts
export default defineCachedEventHandler(async () => {
  // This result is cached!
  const data = await fetchExpensiveData();
  return data;
}, {
  maxAge: 60 * 60, // 1 hour
  staleMaxAge: 60 * 60 * 24, // SWR: serve stale for 24h
  swr: true,
});

Storage

// server/routes/kv.ts
export default defineEventHandler(async (event) => {
  const storage = useStorage('data');

  // Set
  await storage.setItem('user:1', { name: 'Alice' });

  // Get
  const user = await storage.getItem('user:1');

  // List keys
  const keys = await storage.getKeys('user:');

  return { user, keys };
});

Deploy to Any Platform

// nitro.config.ts
export default defineNitroConfig({
  // Change this ONE line to deploy anywhere
  preset: 'cloudflare-pages', // or: 'vercel', 'netlify', 'node-server', 'deno', 'bun', 'aws-lambda'
});

npm run build  # Builds for target platform

Key Features

Feature	Details
Routing	File-based, method-based
Presets	20+ deployment targets
Caching	SWR, storage-backed
Storage	KV, FS, Redis, S3, Cloudflare KV
WebSocket	Built-in support
Tasks	Background tasks, scheduled

Resources

Building APIs? Check my Apify actors or email spinov001@gmail.com.

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