Express, Hono, and other backend frameworks

Easel now deploys Node.js servers built with Hono, Express, Fastify, H3, Koa, Elysia, or NestJS. Your app keeps its own router: Easel bundles the entry file with its imports into one function and routes every path to it, as Vercel does.

Export your app

Put the app in an entry file named app, index, or server (main for NestJS), at the top level or in src/, and export it:

import { Hono } from "hono";

const app = new Hono();

app.get("/", (c) => c.text("Hello from Hono"));

export default app;

Then deploy from Git or run easel deploy. Files in public/ are served from the CDN before the function, and a root api/ folder still becomes its own functions.

Detection that reads your code

Easel detects a backend framework from the entry file that imports it, not only from package.json. Before, these projects were created with no framework and built as static sites.

Detection also runs at build time now. A project created without a Framework preset gets one on its first build, logged as Detected framework. A preset you chose, including Other, is never changed.

If a build would publish a backend’s server code as static files, it fails instead, with the reason and how to fix it.

See Backend frameworks for entry files, routing, and troubleshooting.