hono

name	hono
description	Hono ultrafast web framework for edge and server runtimes. Use when building APIs, middleware chains, or edge functions on Cloudflare Workers, Bun, Node.js, or Deno. Use for hono, api, routing, middleware, cloudflare-workers, edge, rpc, validator, context.
license	MIT
metadata	{"author":"oakoss","version":"1.1","source":"https://hono.dev/docs/"}
user-invocable	false

Hono

Overview

Hono is a small, ultrafast web framework built on Web Standards that runs on any JavaScript runtime including Cloudflare Workers, Bun, Deno, Node.js, Vercel, and AWS Lambda. Application code is portable across runtimes; only the entry point and adapter differ per platform.

When to use: Edge-first APIs, Cloudflare Workers services, multi-runtime applications, lightweight REST/RPC servers, middleware-heavy request pipelines, type-safe client-server communication.

When NOT to use: Full-stack SSR frameworks (use Next.js/Remix), heavy ORM-driven monoliths where Express ecosystem maturity matters, applications that need deep Node.js-only APIs without Web Standard equivalents.

Quick Reference

Pattern	API	Key Points
Basic routing	app.get('/path', handler)	Supports get, post, put, delete, patch, all
Path parameters	app.get('/user/:id', handler)	Access via c.req.param('id')
Regex constraints	app.get('/post/:id{[0-9]+}', handler)	Inline regex in path parameter
Wildcard	app.get('/files/*', handler)	Matches any sub-path
Route grouping	app.route('/api', subApp)	Mount sub-applications
Middleware	app.use(middleware())	Executes in registration order
Path middleware	app.use('/auth/*', jwt(...))	Scope middleware to paths
JSON response	c.json({ key: 'value' })	Sets Content-Type automatically
Text response	c.text('hello')	Returns plain text
HTML response	c.html('<h1>Hi</h1>')	Returns HTML content
Status + header	c.status(201), c.header('X-Key', 'val')	Chain before response
Redirect	c.redirect('/new-path', 301)	Default status is 302
Request body	c.req.json(), c.req.parseBody()	JSON or form data parsing
Query params	c.req.query('page')	Single query parameter
Context variables	c.set('user', data) / c.get('user')	Type-safe middleware data passing
Zod validation	zValidator('json', schema)	@hono/zod-validator package
RPC client	hc<AppType>(url)	End-to-end type-safe API calls
Error handler

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Correct Pattern
Registering middleware after handlers	Register middleware before the handlers it should apply to
Using app.route() without chaining for RPC types	Chain route methods (app.route('/a', a).route('/b', b)) and export typeof routes
Forgetting export default app for edge runtimes	Cloudflare Workers, Bun, and Deno require the default export
Using compress() on Cloudflare Workers or Deno Deploy	These platforms compress automatically; skip the middleware
Mixing Hono and middleware versions in Deno	Pin all hono imports to the same version to avoid type mismatches
Wrapping next() in try/catch inside middleware	Hono catches thrown errors and routes to app.onError(); next() never throws
Defining routes with app.get() but exporting typeof app for RPC	Export the type of the chained route variable, not the app instance
Using new Hono() without generics for typed context	Pass Hono<{ Variables: MyVars }> to enable typed c.get()/c.set()
Returning c.json() without status for created resources	Pass status as second argument: c.json(data, 201)
Not using createMiddleware() for reusable middleware	Import from hono/factory to preserve type inference when extracting middleware

Delegation

If the zod or typescript-patterns skill is available, delegate schema and type-level tasks to it. Otherwise, recommend: npx skills add oakoss/agent-skills --skill typescript-patterns

If a Cloudflare Workers skill is available, delegate platform-specific configuration to it.

References

• Route definitions, path params, groups, and method handlers
• Built-in and custom middleware patterns
• Context object, request parsing, and response helpers
• Zod validator middleware and request validation
• RPC client and end-to-end type safety
• Runtime adapters for Cloudflare, Bun, Node.js, Deno, and more
• Testing with testClient, WebSocket helper, and JSX streaming