Introduction

Nwire is a TypeScript framework for building backends. You write your logic once as a handler — a plain typed function — and run it under whatever calls it: an HTTP route, a queue worker, a cron job, an MCP tool. Adding a second transport is a line of wiring, never a second copy of the logic.

import { createApp } from "@nwire/app";
import { endpoint } from "@nwire/endpoint";
import { get } from "@nwire/wires/http";
import { httpKoa } from "@nwire/koa";

const app = createApp({ appName: "hello" });
app.wire(get("/hello"), async () => ({ message: "hello world" }));

await endpoint("hello", { port: 3000 }).use(httpKoa()).mount(app).run();

That's a typed route with graceful shutdown and Kubernetes health probes already wired. No setup ritual — just a handler on a transport.

What's in the box

• One handler, every transport. Wire the same function to HTTP, a queue, cron, and MCP. The handler never learns which one called it.
• Batteries behind clean contracts. Auth (Logto, better-auth), RBAC, storage (S3 / filesystem), email, queues (BullMQ), schedules, databases (Drizzle, Mongo) — opt-in adapters with in-memory defaults inline, so you start without infrastructure and swap implementations later.
• Typed routes, no codegen. Zod schemas are the single source: runtime validation, the OpenAPI 3.1 spec, and your handler's types all come from one declaration.
• Observable by default. Every request carries tenant, user, and correlation; the runtime emits one typed telemetry stream, and Studio shows a live domain trace rather than a wall of spans.
• Production-ready from line one. Graceful SIGTERM drain, health probes, and errors redacted by default — not a hardening chapter you reach later.
• Deeper when you need it. When the logic gets real — something that holds state and enforces a rule, a process that spans days, a read model you query — the forge battery is there, opt-in and out of your way until then.

How this guide is laid out

• Get started — install, your first app, and project structure.
• Building APIs — HTTP routes + Zod, resources + errors, middleware + plugins, OpenAPI.
• Integrations — auth, RBAC, storage, email, queues, cron, databases.
• Operations — multi-tenancy, multi-transport, graceful shutdown, observability, testing.
• When your logic gets real — events you react to, things that hold state, read models you query, processes that span steps.

Prefer to learn the model first? The Core concepts explain why the pieces are shaped this way; Why Nwire makes the case and walks through the production problems it already solves.

Coming from Express or NestJS? Jump to the migration guides: Express, NestJS.