As a Next.js user, one of the things I've been used to working with were built-in API routes. When I tried out Nuxt, I was curious how I would achieve the same functionality.

In this post, I'll walk through how to easily create API routes in a Nuxt app using Express.

Implementation

To get started, start with an existing Nuxt app or create a new one using npx:

npx create-nuxt-app nuxt-with-api

cd nuxt-with-api

Next, install express:

npm install express

Next, update nuxt.config.js to add the following serverMiddleware configuration to specify the directory of the API routes:

serverMiddleware: {
  '/api': '~/api'
}

Next, create a folder called api., and within the api folder create a file called index.js and a file called hello.js:

Next, open api/index.js and add the following code to configure the entry point to the express server:

const express = require('express')
const app = express()

const hello = require('./hello')
app.use(hello)

if (require.main === module) {
  const port = 3001
  app.listen(port, () => {
    console.log(`API server listening on port ${port}`)
  })
}

module.exports = app

Next, open api/hello.js and add the following code to create a /hello route:

const { Router } = require('express')
const router = Router()

router.use('/hello', (req, res) => {
  res.end('Hello world!')
})

module.exports = router

Next, test it out by running npm run dev.

Now, navigate to http://localhost:3000/api/hello and you should see your API response!

Conclusion

Creating API routes in a Nuxt app is more work than with Next.js, but servermiddleware allows you to implement your own API route setup fairly easily.

Cover image by Diego PH

Creating API Routes in a Nuxt App

Implementation

Conclusion