hono

Getting Started

1. Install the skill using the command above
2. Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
3. Reference the skill in your prompt
4. The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically

Example Prompts

• "Review the open pull requests and summarize what needs attention"
• "Generate a changelog from the last 20 commits on the main branch"

Overview

Hono is a lightweight, ultrafast web framework built on Web Standards that runs across multiple runtimes including Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun, and Node.js. It provides expressive routing, a rich middleware ecosystem, and type-safe RPC capabilities for building performant APIs and web applications.

Instructions

• When creating a new API, set up routing with app.get(), app.post(), etc., and organize routes into modular sub-routers using app.route().
• When adding middleware, use built-in options like cors(), logger(), secureHeaders() globally with app.use("*", ...) and scope auth middleware to protected paths.
• When handling requests, use the Context API: c.req.param() for path params, c.req.query() for query strings, c.req.json() for body parsing, and c.json() for responses.
• When validating input, integrate @hono/zod-validator with zValidator("json", schema) for request body, query, and param validation with type inference.
• When building type-safe clients, use Hono's RPC mode with hc<AppType>(baseUrl) to generate a typed HTTP client from route definitions without code generation.
• When deploying to Cloudflare Workers, type environment bindings with new Hono<{ Bindings: Env }>() and use c.executionCtx.waitUntil() for background tasks.
• When rendering HTML, use Hono's built-in JSX runtime (hono/jsx) for lightweight server-side rendering without React.
• When writing tests, call app.request("/path") directly to test routes as pure functions without an HTTP server.

Examples

Example 1: Build a REST API with validation

User request: "Create a Hono API with user CRUD endpoints and Zod validation"

Actions:

1. Initialize Hono app with typed environment bindings
2. Define Zod schemas for user creation and update payloads
3. Create route handlers with zValidator("json", schema) middleware
4. Group routes with app.route("/api/users", userRouter)

Output: A type-safe REST API with validated inputs and proper HTTP status codes.

Example 2: Deploy a multi-runtime API

User request: "Set up a Hono API that works on both Cloudflare Workers and Node.js"

Actions:

1. Create shared Hono app with routes and middleware
2. Configure Cloudflare Workers entry with export default app
3. Add Node.js entry using @hono/node-server adapter
4. Set up environment-specific binding types

Output: A portable API deployable to multiple runtimes with shared route logic.

Guidelines

• Use new Hono<{ Bindings: Env }>() to type environment bindings on Cloudflare.
• Group related routes into separate files and merge with app.route().
• Apply global middleware with app.use("*", middleware) and scope auth to protected paths.
• Use @hono/zod-validator for all user input; never trust raw request data.
• Return proper HTTP status codes: 201 for creation, 204 for deletion, 4xx for client errors.
• Prefer Hono's RPC mode over manual fetch calls for internal service communication.