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getting-startedNodejs

Last Updated: 3/7/2026

Node.js

Node.js  is an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment.

Hono was not designed for Node.js at first. But with a Node.js Adapter  it can run on Node.js as well.

INFO: It works on Node.js versions greater than 18.x. The specific required Node.js versions are as follows:

  • 18.x => 18.14.1+
  • 19.x => 19.7.0+
  • 20.x => 20.0.0+

Essentially, you can simply use the latest version of each major release.

1. Setup

A starter for Node.js is available. Start your project with “create-hono” command. Select nodejs template for this example.

npm create hono@latest my-app

Move to my-app and install the dependencies.

cd my-app
npm i

2. Hello World

Edit src/index.ts:

import { serve } from '@hono/node-server'
import { Hono } from 'hono'
 
const app = new Hono()
app.get('/', (c) => c.text('Hello Node.js!'))
 
serve(app)

If you want to gracefully shut down the server, write it like this:

const server = serve(app)
 
// graceful shutdown
process.on('SIGINT', () => {
  server.close()
  process.exit(0)
})
process.on('SIGTERM', () => {
  server.close((err) => {
    if (err) {
      console.error(err)
      process.exit(1)
    }
    process.exit(0)
  })
})

3. Run

Run the development server locally. Then, access http://localhost:3000 in your Web browser.

npm run dev

Change port number

You can specify the port number with the port option.

serve({
  fetch: app.fetch,
  port: 8787,
})

Access the raw Node.js APIs

You can access the Node.js APIs from c.env.incoming and c.env.outgoing.

import { Hono } from 'hono'
import { serve, type HttpBindings } from '@hono/node-server'
 
type Bindings = HttpBindings & {
  /* ... */
}
 
const app = new Hono<{ Bindings: Bindings }>()
 
app.get('/', (c) => {
  return c.json({
    remoteAddress: c.env.incoming.socket.remoteAddress,
  })
})
 
serve(app)

Serve static files

You can use serveStatic to serve static files from the local file system.

import { serveStatic } from '@hono/node-server/serve-static'
 
app.use('/static/*', serveStatic({ root: './' }))
app.use('/favicon.ico', serveStatic({ path: './favicon.ico' }))
app.use('*', serveStatic({ root: './static' }))
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