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Get your first Hono application up and running in minutes. Hono is an ultrafast web framework built on Web Standards that works on any JavaScript runtime.

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Create a New Project

The fastest way to get started is using the create-hono scaffolding tool:
1

Create your project

Run the scaffolding command to create a new Hono project:
npm create hono@latest
You’ll be prompted to:
  • Enter a project name
  • Choose a template (cloudflare-workers, deno, bun, nodejs, etc.)
  • Select whether to install dependencies
2

Navigate to your project

cd my-app
3

Start the development server

The start command depends on your chosen runtime:
npm run dev
4

Open your browser

Navigate to http://localhost:8787 (or the port shown in your terminal) to see your app running.

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Your First Hono App

Here’s a simple “Hello World” example that demonstrates the core concepts:
index.ts
import { Hono } from 'hono'

const app = new Hono()

app.get('/', (c) => c.text('Hono!'))

export default app
This minimal example shows:
  • Import: Bring in the Hono class from the hono package
  • Create: Instantiate a new Hono application
  • Route: Define a GET route at the root path
  • Handler: Return a text response using the context object c
  • Export: Make the app available to the runtime

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Add More Routes

Expand your app with different HTTP methods and dynamic routes: 
import { Hono } from 'hono'

const app = new Hono()

// Simple GET route
app.get('/', (c) => c.text('Hono!'))

// Dynamic route with parameters
app.get('/hello/:name', (c) => {
  const name = c.req.param('name')
  return c.text(`Hello, ${name}!`)
})

// POST route with JSON response
app.post('/api/users', (c) => {
  return c.json({ message: 'User created' }, 201)
})

// Wildcard route
app.get('/posts/*', (c) => {
  return c.text('Blog posts')
})

export default app

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Working with Different Runtimes

One of Hono’s superpowers is that the same code runs on multiple platforms. Here’s how to run your app on different runtimes: 
import { Hono } from 'hono'

const app = new Hono()
app.get('/', (c) => c.text('Hono!'))

export default app
Run with:
npm run dev

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Response Types

Hono’s context object provides convenient methods for different response types: 
import { Hono } from 'hono'

const app = new Hono()

// Text response
app.get('/text', (c) => c.text('Hello!'))

// JSON response
app.get('/json', (c) => c.json({ message: 'Hello!' }))

// HTML response
app.get('/html', (c) => c.html('<h1>Hello!</h1>'))

// Custom response
app.get('/custom', (c) => {
  return new Response('Custom', {
    status: 200,
    headers: { 'X-Custom': 'Header' }
  })
})

export default app

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Next Steps

Now that you have a basic Hono app running, explore more features:

Routing

Learn about path parameters, wildcards, and route grouping

Middleware

Add authentication, CORS, logging, and more

Context

Master the request and response handling

Validation

Validate request data with type safety

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