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henrihenri

Getting started

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”
  • Node.js 22 or newer
  • A package manager: pnpm, npm or yarn all work

Install

Section titled “Install”
Terminal window
pnpm add -g henri
# or
npm install -g henri

Create a new project

Section titled “Create a new project”
Terminal window
henri new <folder name>

The command creates a directory structure similar to this:

├── app
│   ├── controllers
│   ├── helpers
│   ├── models
│   ├── workers
│   └── views
│       ├── assets
│       ├── components
│       ├── pages
│       ├── public
│       └── styles
├── config
│   ├── default.json
│   ├── production.json
│   ├── routes.js
│   └── webpack.js            <- extend the Next.js webpack settings
├── test
│   ├── controllers
│   ├── helpers
│   ├── models
│   └── views
└── package.json

If you have a Ruby on Rails background, this should look familiar.

Start coding

Section titled “Start coding”
Terminal window
cd <folder name>
henri server

henri boots its modules in order (configuration, mail, GraphQL, controllers, server, models, views, users, routes, workers, tests), prints the URL it is listening on and watches your files. Saving a controller, a model, a route file, a worker or a configuration file reloads the affected modules without restarting the process.

While the server runs, the terminal accepts a few shortcuts:

Key Action
R list the loaded routes
U list the routes whose controller is missing
Cmd/Ctrl+R reload the whole application
Cmd/Ctrl+O open the app in your browser
Cmd/Ctrl+C quit

Useful flags

Section titled “Useful flags”
Terminal window
henri server --production    # same as NODE_ENV=production
henri server --debug=henri:* # same as DEBUG=henri:*
henri server --inspect       # start the Node.js inspector
henri server --skip-workers  # do not start app/workers
henri server --force-build   # force a production rebuild of the views

See the CLI reference for every command.