Get Started with Web App

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Learn more about Wooks to understand its philosophy and advantages:

• What is Wooks?
• Why Wooks?
• Comparison with Express, Fastify, and h3

Or you can get hands-on with the HTTP flavor of Wooks right now.

Installation

npm install @wooksjs/event-http

This gives you access to the Wooks core library and the HTTP adapter, which provides a simple, Express-like API for creating HTTP servers while leveraging Wooks’ composable and context-driven patterns.

Creating Your First "Hello World" App

In this example, we’ll create an HTTP server that responds to GET /hello/:name with a personalized greeting.

Example:

import { createHttpApp, useRouteParams } from '@wooksjs/event-http'

const app = createHttpApp()

// Register a route handler using the GET method shortcut:
app.get('hello/:name', () => `Hello ${useRouteParams().get('name')}!`)

// Start the server on port 3000
app.listen(3000, () => {
    // Use the built-in logger to print a startup message
    app.getLogger('[App]').log('Wooks Server is up on port 3000')
})

Test It:

curl http://localhost:3000/hello/World
# Hello World!

Using Node’s http Server Directly

You can create http(s) server manually and pass the server callback from the Wooks HTTP app. Use getServerCb() to plug Wooks into an http server of your own.

Example:

import { createHttpApp, useRouteParams } from '@wooksjs/event-http'
import http from 'http'

const app = createHttpApp()

app.get('hello/:name', () => `Hello ${useRouteParams().get('name')}!`)

const server = http.createServer(app.getServerCb()) 
server.listen(3000, () => { 
app.listen(3000, () => {    
    console.log('Wooks Server is up on port 3000')
})

Test It:

curl http://localhost:3000/hello/Wooks
# Hello Wooks!

When you create the server yourself, call app.attachServer(server) so that app.close() can stop it. app.getServer() returns the attached (or listen()-created) http.Server, and await app.close() shuts it down gracefully.

AI Agent Skills

Wooks provides a unified skill for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex, etc.) that covers all packages with progressive-disclosure reference docs.

npx skills add wooksjs/wooksjs

Learn more about AI agent skills at skills.sh.

What Each Page Covers

• Introduction — What @wooksjs/event-http gives you at a glance.
• Comparison — Concrete differences vs Express, Fastify, and h3.
• Routing — Route registration, parametric routes, wildcards, path builders.
• Request Composables — Headers, query params, cookies, authorization, client IP, body limits.
• Response Composables — Status, headers, cookies, cache control, error responses.
• Body Parser — Parsing JSON, form data, and more with @wooksjs/http-body.
• Proxy Requests — Reverse proxying with @wooksjs/http-proxy.
• Serve Static — Static file serving with @wooksjs/http-static.
• Programmatic Fetch — Call your routes in-process with app.fetch() / app.request().
• Testing — Integration tests via app.request() and unit tests via prepareTestHttpContext().
• Context and Hooks — Build your own composables with defineWook.
• Framework Integrations — Run Wooks inside Express, Fastify, or h3.
• Logging — Event loggers and logger configuration.

Once comfortable with HTTP, consider exploring the CLI or Workflow flavors for broader event-driven architectures.