Getting started

This guide creates a small versioned API with one controller and a validated endpoint.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer
• A TypeScript project using CommonJS-compatible output
• experimentalDecorators and emitDecoratorMetadata enabled

Install Amala

Add Amala to an existing project:

npm install amala

Or generate a starter application:

npm create amala-app@latest my-api

The rest of this guide shows the manual setup so each moving part is visible.

Configure TypeScript

Use this as a baseline tsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "module": "commonjs",
    "outDir": "dist",
    "target": "ES2018"
  },
  "include": ["src/**/*.ts"]
}

Both decorator settings are required. Without emitted type metadata, Amala cannot transform and validate class-based handler arguments.

These settings select TypeScript's legacy decorator implementation. Standard decorators do not currently support parameter decorators such as @Body() or automatically emit the parameter types Amala needs.

Create a controller

Create src/controllers/HealthController.ts:

import {Controller, Get} from 'amala';

@Controller('/health')
export class HealthController {
  @Get('/')
  status() {
    return {status: 'ok'};
  }
}

Bootstrap the app

Create src/main.ts:

import {bootstrapControllers} from 'amala';
import {HealthController} from './controllers/HealthController';

async function start() {
  const {app} = await bootstrapControllers({
    attachRoutes: true,
    basePath: '/api',
    controllers: [HealthController],
    useHelmet: true,
  });

  app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('API listening at http://localhost:3000');
  });
}

void start();

Compile and run the application with the scripts used by your project. Request:

GET http://localhost:3000/api/v1/health

The response is:

{"status":"ok"}

Version v1 is enabled by default. To serve GET /api/health, set disableVersioning: true.

Add validation

Create src/controllers/UserController.ts:

import {
  Body,
  Controller,
  IsEmail,
  IsString,
  Post,
} from 'amala';

class CreateUserInput {
  @IsEmail()
  email: string;

  @IsString()
  displayName: string;
}

@Controller('/users')
export class UserController {
  @Post('/')
  create(@Body({required: true}) input: CreateUserInput) {
    return input;
  }
}

Register UserController beside HealthController. Amala transforms the JSON body into CreateUserInput, runs class-validator, and returns 422 when validation fails.

For strict object contracts, pass class-validator options during bootstrap:

validatorOptions: {
  forbidNonWhitelisted: true,
  whitelist: true,
}

Add middleware

Use @Flow for controller- or endpoint-level Koa middleware:

const requireUser = async (ctx, next) => {
  if (!ctx.state.user) {
    ctx.throw(401, 'Authentication required');
  }

  await next();
};

@Post('/')
@Flow(requireUser)
create(@Body({required: true}) input: CreateUserInput) {
  return input;
}

Authentication and authorization are not built into Amala. Your middleware must establish identity and enforce access before the handler runs.

OpenAPI and Swagger

OpenAPI is enabled by default. With basePath: '/api', Amala serves:

• OpenAPI JSON at GET /api/docs
• Swagger UI at GET /api/swagger

Set a public origin when the generated server URLs need an absolute URL:

openAPI: {
  enabled: true,
  publicURL: 'https://api.example.com',
}

An omitted publicURL keeps Swagger on the same origin. Disable or protect these endpoints when your route inventory should not be public.

Attach routes manually

attachRoutes is false by default. That lets you insert your own middleware before the generated router:

const {app, router} = await bootstrapControllers({
  basePath: '/api',
  controllers: [HealthController, UserController],
});

app.use(yourMiddleware);
app.use(router.routes());
app.use(router.allowedMethods());

Continue with the bootstrapControllers reference and the production security guide.