routes.md

Manual routes (route loader)

Beyond CRUD, you add normal Express routers and Railnode will auto-mount them.

How route files are discovered

• Any file in the routes directory matching *.route.(ts|js|mjs|cjs) is imported.
• A route module is mounted only when it exports:
  • export const basePath = "/something" (string)
  • export default router where router is an express.Router()

If basePath is present but there is no default export, the route is skipped. If a default export exists but basePath is missing/invalid, the route is skipped.

Minimal example

Create src/routes/health.route.ts:

import { Router } from "express";

const router = Router();

router.get("/", (_req, res) => {
  res.json({ ok: true });
});

export const basePath = "/health";
export default router;

This is mounted at /health.

Route composition

If you want multiple endpoints under one base path:

router.get("/stats", ...);
router.post("/reindex", ...);

export const basePath = "/admin";

Results:

• GET /admin/stats
• POST /admin/reindex

Accessing runtime config in a route

Railnode stores runtime info on app.locals.backend.

In a route handler (you have access to req.app.locals):

router.get("/", (req, res) => {
  const backend = req.app.locals["backend"] as any;
  res.json({
    port: backend?.runtime?.port,
    modelsPath: backend?.runtime?.modelsPath,
    routesPath: backend?.runtime?.routesPath,
    dbAdapterKind: backend?.config?.dbAdapter?.kind ?? backend?.config?.db?.adapter,
  });
});

Keep this lightweight—app.locals is a convenient escape hatch for operational/debug info.