Vajra ⚡

Ultra-minimal, zero-dependency Node.js HTTP server
Routing · Middleware · Multipart parsing · HTML templating
All in 111 lines of pure JavaScript

Name Origin

Vajra draws from the Rigvedic thunderbolt weapon of Indra — crafted from the bones of Sage Dadhichi, symbolizing unbreakable strength through selfless sacrifice.

Like the Vajra, this server delivers maximum power in minimal form.

Changelog

1.4.1 (Current)

• Added support to handle drift in system time after signing

1.4.0 (2025-12-31)

• Added full HS256 JWT support (@techiev2/vajra/libs/auth/jwt.js)
  • Ultra-minimal, zero-dependency implementation
  • Key and header caching for maximum performance
  • Robust base64url handling
  • Numeric exp validation and expiration checks

1.3.0 (2025-12-30)

• Performance improvements to routing in bare routes

1.2.0 (2025-12-30)

• Adds cookie support

1.0.0 (2025-12-25)

• Initial release

Features

• Zero external dependencies
• Built-in routing with named parameters (:id)
• Asynchronous batched logging for performance
• Global middleware support with next() chaining
• JSON, urlencoded, and multipart/form-data body parsing
• Fast HTML templating with loops, nested objects, and simple array headers
• Helper methods: res.json(), res.html(), res.status(), res.writeMessage()
• Payload size limiting with 413 responses
• Sensible defaults for 404/405/500

Performance (Apple M4, Node 20+)

| Test Case | Vajra | Express + Multer | Notes | |------------------------------------------------|----------------|------------------|---------------------------| | 1MB Multipart Upload (wrk -t16 -c600) | ~94–98k req/s | ~72k req/s | +30% faster | | Idle RSS | ~52–53 MB | ~44 MB | Zero deps vs extra packages | | Peak RSS under load | ~228 MB | ~209 MB | Full buffering trade-off | | Code size (source) | 111 lines | ~2k+ lines | Hand-crafted minimalism |

Performance Benchmarks (wrk)

Installation

npm install vajra

Quick Start

import Vajra from '../index.js';
import { encode } from 'node:querystring';

async function getUsers(query = {}) {
  return (await fetch(`https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users?${encode(query)}`)).json()
}

const { get, post, use, start, setProperty, log } = Vajra.create();

setProperty({ viewsRoot: `${import.meta.url}/views` })
// Or as a key-value pair
// setProperty('viewsRoot', `${import.meta.url}/views`)

use((req, res, next) => {
  // Vajra provides an async batched logger to provide a balance between 100% log coverage and performance.
  // If you prefer blocking immediate logs, you can switch to console.log
  // or any other library of your choice.
  log(`${req.method} ${req.url}`);
  next();
});

get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.writeMessage('Hello from Vajra ⚡');
});

post('/upload', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ received: true, filesCount: req.files.length, files: req.files, body: req.body });
});

start({ port: 4002 }, () => {
  console.log('Ready at http://localhost:4002');
});

get('/api/users', async ({ query }, res) => {
  const users = await getUsers(query)
  return res.json({ users })
})

get('/web/users', async ({ query }, res) => {
  const users = await getUsers(query)
  const headers = Object.keys(users[0])
  return res.html(`users.html`, { users, headers })
})

HTML Templating

import Vajra from '../index.js';
const { get, post, use, start, setProperty } = Vajra.create();

get('/users', (req, res) => {
  const data = {
    users: [
      { id: 1, name: 'Alice' },
      { id: 2, name: 'Bob' }
    ],
    headers: ['ID', 'Name']
  };

  // If no view root is set, .html() expects the absolute path.
  res.html('views/users.html', data);
});

views/users.html

<table>
  <thead>
    {{# headers }}
      <th>{{ header@ }}</th>
    {{/ headers }}
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    {{# users }}
      <tr>
        <td>{{ id }}</td>
        <td>{{ name }}</td>
      </tr>
    {{/ users }}
  </tbody>
</table>

Supports:

• Loops ({{# array }} ... {{/ array }})
• Dot notation ({{ user.name }})
• Special header shorthand ({{ header@ }} for simple arrays)

Configuration

const app = vajra.create({
  maxFileSize: 10 // in MB (default: 2)
});

// Set view root path
app.setProperty('viewRoot', './views');

API

• get/post/put/patch/delete/head/options(path, handler)
• use(middleware)
• start({ port, host }, callback?)
• setProperty(key, value) or setProperty({ key: value })
• log(message)

Response helpers:

res.status(code) res.json(data) res.writeMessage(text) res.html(pathOrString, data)

Philosophy

Vajra is built on the principle that minimalism can maximise outcomes.

Everything you need for real internal tools, admin panels, APIs, and prototypes — without the bloat.

No dependencies. No build step. Just copy index.js and go.

Benchmarks & Memory

Run under extreme multipart load (wrk -t16 -c600 -d30s 1MB payloads):

Throughput: ~95k req/s Idle RSS: ~52 MB Peak under load: ~228 MB (drops back on idle)

License

MIT

Credits

Hand-crafted by [Sriram Velamur/@techiev2]

Inspired by the desire for a truly tiny, powerful, and dependency-free Node server.