hono

Hono Web Framework

Overview

Hono (炎, "flame" in Japanese) is a small, ultrafast web framework built on Web Standards (Request/Response/fetch). It runs anywhere: Cloudflare Workers, Deno Deploy, Bun, Node.js, AWS Lambda, and any WinterCG-compatible runtime — with the same code. Hono's router is one of the fastest available, and its middleware system, built-in JSX support, and RPC client make it a strong choice for edge APIs, BFFs, and lightweight full-stack apps.

When to Use This Skill

• Use when building a REST or RPC API for edge deployment (Cloudflare Workers, Deno Deploy)
• Use when you need a minimal but type-safe server framework for Bun or Node.js
• Use when building a Backend for Frontend (BFF) layer with low latency requirements
• Use when migrating from Express but wanting better TypeScript support and edge compatibility
• Use when the user asks about Hono routing, middleware, c.req, c.json, or hc() RPC client

How It Works

Step 1: Project Setup

Cloudflare Workers (recommended for edge):

npm create hono@latest my-api
# Select: cloudflare-workers
cd my-api
npm install
npm run dev    # Wrangler local dev
npm run deploy # Deploy to Cloudflare

Bun / Node.js:

mkdir my-api && cd my-api
bun init
bun add hono

// src/index.ts (Bun)
import { Hono } from 'hono';

const app = new Hono();

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

export default {
  port: 3000,
  fetch: app.fetch,
};

Step 2: Routing

import { Hono } from 'hono';

const app = new Hono();

// Basic methods
app.get('/posts', c => c.json({ posts: [] }));
app.post('/posts', c => c.json({ created: true }, 201));
app.put('/posts/:id', c => c.json({ updated: true }));
app.delete('/posts/:id', c => c.json({ deleted: true }));

// Route params and query strings
app.get('/posts/:id', async c => {
  const id = c.req.param('id');
  const format = c.req.query('format') ?? 'json';
  return c.json({ id, format });
});

// Wildcard
app.get('/static/*', c => c.text('static file'));

export default app;