@hazeljs/core

AI-Native Foundation - DI, routing, and decorators built for intelligent applications.

Part of the HazelJS AI-Native Backend Framework. Stop wiring boilerplate. Build APIs with dependency injection, decorator-based routing, and middleware that just works. TypeScript-first, production-ready, zero Express dependency.

🚀 Trusted by 200K+ monthly downloads • 37+ GitHub stars • 15+ daily active developers

Why @hazeljs/core?

Built as the foundation for AI-native applications - not just another framework. When you combine @hazeljs/core with our AI packages (@hazeljs/ai, @hazeljs/agent, @hazeljs/rag), you get a complete stack for intelligent backends without glue code.

Perfect for:

• AI startups building production agents
• Teams replacing NestJS/Express with AI-native backends
• Developers who want TypeScript-first architecture
• Projects needing dependency injection without complexity

Features

• 🎯 Dependency Injection - Advanced DI with Singleton, Transient, and Request scopes
• 🎨 Decorator-Based API - Clean, intuitive programming model
• 🛣️ Routing - Express-based routing with parameter extraction
• 🔌 Middleware Support - Global and route-level middleware
• 🛡️ Guards & Interceptors - Request validation and transformation
• 🔧 Pipes - Data transformation and validation
• 🏥 Health Checks - Built-in liveness, readiness, and startup probes
• 🛑 Graceful Shutdown - Proper cleanup and connection draining
• 📊 Logging - Winston-based structured logging
• ✅ Validation - Automatic request validation with class-validator
• 🧪 Testing Utilities - Full testing support with TestingModule

Installation

npm install @hazeljs/core

Quick Start

1. Create a Controller

import { Controller, Get, Post, Body, Param } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Controller('/users')
export class UserController {
  @Get()
  findAll() {
    return { users: [] };
  }

  @Get('/:id')
  findOne(@Param('id') id: string) {
    return { id, name: 'John Doe' };
  }

  @Post()
  create(@Body() createUserDto: CreateUserDto) {
    return { message: 'User created', data: createUserDto };
  }
}

2. Create a Service

import { Injectable } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Injectable()
export class UserService {
  private users = [];

  findAll() {
    return this.users;
  }

  findOne(id: string) {
    return this.users.find((user) => user.id === id);
  }

  create(data: any) {
    const user = { id: Date.now().toString(), ...data };
    this.users.push(user);
    return user;
  }
}

3. Create a Module

import { HazelModule } from '@hazeljs/core';
import { UserController } from './user.controller';
import { UserService } from './user.service';

@HazelModule({
  controllers: [UserController],
  providers: [UserService],
})
export class AppModule {}

4. Bootstrap the Application

import { HazelApp, BuiltInHealthChecks } from '@hazeljs/core';
import { AppModule } from './app.module';

async function bootstrap() {
  const app = await HazelApp.create(AppModule);

  // Register health checks
  app.registerHealthCheck(BuiltInHealthChecks.memoryCheck(500));
  app.registerHealthCheck(BuiltInHealthChecks.eventLoopCheck(100));

  // Register shutdown handlers
  app.registerShutdownHandler({
    name: 'cleanup',
    handler: async () => {
      console.log('Cleaning up resources...');
    },
    timeout: 5000,
  });

  await app.listen(3000);
}

bootstrap();

Dependency Injection

Scopes

import { Injectable, Scope } from '@hazeljs/core';

// Singleton (default) - one instance for entire app
@Injectable()
export class SingletonService {}

// Transient - new instance every time
@Injectable({ scope: Scope.TRANSIENT })
export class TransientService {}

// Request - one instance per HTTP request
@Injectable({ scope: Scope.REQUEST })
export class RequestContextService {}

Constructor Injection

@Injectable()
export class OrderService {
  constructor(
    private userService: UserService,
    private paymentService: PaymentService
  ) {}

  async createOrder(userId: string) {
    const user = await this.userService.findOne(userId);
    const payment = await this.paymentService.process(user);
    return { user, payment };
  }
}

Routing & Decorators

HTTP Methods

import { Controller, Get, Post, Put, Delete, Patch } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Controller('/api')
export class ApiController {
  @Get('/items')
  getItems() {}

  @Post('/items')
  createItem() {}

  @Put('/items/:id')
  updateItem() {}

  @Patch('/items/:id')
  patchItem() {}

  @Delete('/items/:id')
  deleteItem() {}
}

Parameter Decorators

import { Controller, Get, Post, Param, Query, Body, Headers, Req, Res } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Controller('/users')
export class UserController {
  @Get('/:id')
  findOne(@Param('id') id: string, @Query('include') include?: string) {
    return { id, include };
  }

  @Post()
  create(@Body() createUserDto: CreateUserDto, @Headers('authorization') auth: string) {
    return { data: createUserDto, auth };
  }

  @Get('/raw')
  rawAccess(@Req() req: Request, @Res() res: Response) {
    res.json({ message: 'Direct access to req/res' });
  }
}

Custom metadata and parameter decorators

Attach custom metadata for guards or other layers with SetMetadata / getMetadata, and build your own parameter decorators with createParamDecorator:

import { SetMetadata, getMetadata, createParamDecorator } from '@hazeljs/core';

// Custom metadata (e.g. for guards)
@SetMetadata('roles', ['admin'])
class AdminController {}

// Custom parameter decorator
const CurrentUser = createParamDecorator((_req, ctx) => ctx.user);

@Get('profile')
getProfile(@CurrentUser user: User) {
  return user;
}

Use the custom param decorator without parentheses: @CurrentUser. See the full API reference for ParamDecoratorContext and CUSTOM_METADATA_PREFIX.

Middleware

Global Middleware

import { Middleware, type RequestContext } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Injectable()
export class LoggerMiddleware implements Middleware {
  async use(context: RequestContext, next: () => Promise<unknown>) {
    console.log(`${context.method} ${context.url}`);
    return next();
  }
}

// Register globally
const app = await HazelApp.create(AppModule);
app.useGlobalMiddleware(new LoggerMiddleware());

Route-Level Middleware

import { Controller, Get, UseMiddleware } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Controller('/admin')
@UseMiddleware(AuthMiddleware)
export class AdminController {
  @Get('/dashboard')
  @UseMiddleware(RoleCheckMiddleware)
  getDashboard() {
    return { data: 'admin dashboard' };
  }
}

Global exception filters

import { HazelApp, HttpExceptionFilter, type ExceptionFilter } from '@hazeljs/core';

const app = await HazelApp.create(AppModule);
app.useGlobalExceptionFilter(new HttpExceptionFilter());

Guards

import { CanActivate, ExecutionContext, Injectable, UseGuards } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Injectable()
export class AuthGuard implements CanActivate {
  canActivate(context: ExecutionContext): boolean | Promise<boolean> {
    const token = context.request.headers.authorization;
    return this.validateToken(token);
  }

  private validateToken(token: string | undefined): boolean {
    // Validate JWT token
    return !!token;
  }
}

// Use in controller
@Controller('/protected')
@UseGuards(AuthGuard)
export class ProtectedController {
  @Get()
  getData() {
    return { message: 'Protected data' };
  }
}

Interceptors

import { Interceptor, Injectable, UseInterceptors, type RequestContext } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Injectable()
export class TransformInterceptor implements Interceptor {
  async intercept(context: RequestContext, next: () => Promise<unknown>) {
    const result = await next();

    return {
      data: result,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      path: context.url,
    };
  }
}

// Use globally or per route
@Controller('/api')
@UseInterceptors(TransformInterceptor)
export class ApiController {}

Pipes

import { Injectable, PipeTransform, type RequestContext } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Injectable()
export class NonEmptyPipe implements PipeTransform<string, string> {
  transform(value: string, _context: RequestContext): string {
    if (!value) {
      throw new Error('Value is required');
    }
    return value;
  }
}

// Prefer the built-in ValidationPipe with class-validator DTOs (see Validation below).

Validation

import { IsEmail, IsString, MinLength } from 'class-validator';

export class CreateUserDto {
  @IsEmail()
  email: string;

  @IsString()
  @MinLength(8)
  password: string;

  @IsString()
  name: string;
}

@Controller('/users')
export class UserController {
  @Post()
  create(@Body() createUserDto: CreateUserDto) {
    // Automatically validated before reaching here
    return createUserDto;
  }
}

Health Checks

import { HazelApp, BuiltInHealthChecks } from '@hazeljs/core';

const app = await HazelApp.create(AppModule);

// Built-in checks
app.registerHealthCheck(BuiltInHealthChecks.memoryCheck(500)); // 500MB threshold
app.registerHealthCheck(BuiltInHealthChecks.eventLoopCheck(100)); // 100ms lag

// Custom health check
app.registerHealthCheck({
  name: 'database',
  check: async () => {
    try {
      await database.ping();
      return { status: 'healthy' };
    } catch (error) {
      return {
        status: 'unhealthy',
        message: error.message,
      };
    }
  },
  critical: true,
  timeout: 3000,
});

// Endpoints available:
// GET /health  - Liveness probe
// GET /ready   - Readiness probe
// GET /startup - Startup probe

Graceful Shutdown

const app = await HazelApp.create(AppModule);

app.registerShutdownHandler({
  name: 'database',
  handler: async () => {
    await database.disconnect();
    console.log('Database disconnected');
  },
  timeout: 5000,
});

app.registerShutdownHandler({
  name: 'cache',
  handler: async () => {
    await redis.quit();
    console.log('Redis connection closed');
  },
  timeout: 3000,
});

await app.listen(3000);

// On SIGTERM/SIGINT:
// 1. HTTP server stops accepting new connections
// 2. Existing requests complete (up to 10s)
// 3. Shutdown handlers execute in order
// 4. Process exits cleanly

Exception Handling

import { ExceptionFilter, ExceptionContext } from '@hazeljs/core';

@Injectable()
export class HttpExceptionFilter implements ExceptionFilter {
  catch(error: Error, context: ExceptionContext) {
    const response = context.response;

    response.status(500).json({
      statusCode: 500,
      message: error.message,
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      path: context.request.url,
    });
  }
}

// Use globally
app.useGlobalExceptionFilter(new HttpExceptionFilter());

Testing

import { TestingModule } from '@hazeljs/core';
import { UserController } from './user.controller';
import { UserService } from './user.service';

describe('UserController', () => {
  let module: TestingModule;
  let controller: UserController;
  let service: UserService;

  beforeEach(async () => {
    module = await TestingModule.create({
      controllers: [UserController],
      providers: [
        {
          provide: UserService,
          useValue: {
            findAll: jest.fn().mockResolvedValue([]),
          },
        },
      ],
    });

    controller = module.get(UserController);
    service = module.get(UserService);
  });

  afterEach(async () => {
    await module.close();
  });

  it('should return all users', async () => {
    const result = await controller.findAll();
    expect(result).toEqual([]);
    expect(service.findAll).toHaveBeenCalled();
  });
});

Logging

HTTP requests are logged in following format: METHOD path status duration (e.g. GET /api/health 200 3ms).

| Env var | Default | Description | | ------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------- | | LOG_LEVEL | info | Log level (error, warn, info, debug) | | LOG_HTTP | true | Set to false to disable HTTP request logs | | LOG_ENABLED | true | Set to false to disable all logging |

Startup and registration logs (controllers, routes, providers) are at debug level. Use LOG_LEVEL=debug for troubleshooting.

API Reference

Decorators

• @HazelModule(options) - Define a module
• @Controller(path) - Define a controller
• @Injectable(options?) - Mark class as injectable
• @Get(path?), @Post(path?), @Put(path?), @Delete(path?), @Patch(path?) - HTTP methods
• @Param(name), @Query(name), @Body(), @Headers(name), @Req(), @Res(), @Ip(), @Host() - Parameter extraction
• @UseGuards(...guards), @UseInterceptors(...interceptors), @UsePipes(...pipes) - Apply guards, interceptors, pipes
• @Public() / @SkipAuth() - Mark route as public
• @Timeout(ms), @Retry(options), @Optional(), @Session() - Per-route behavior
• @ApiTags(...tags), @ApiOperation(options) - OpenAPI metadata
• SetMetadata(key, value) - Attach custom metadata to a class or method (read with getMetadata(key, target, propertyKey?))
• createParamDecorator(resolve) - Build custom parameter decorators that inject values from (req, context, container)

Classes

• HazelApp - Main application class
• TestingModule - Testing utilities
• Logger - Logging service

Examples

See the examples directory for complete working examples.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide for details.

License

Apache 2.0 © HazelJS

Links

• Documentation
• GitHub
• Issues
• Discord