Request & Response

Every route handler in Nova receives a Request object. Your job is to process that request and return a Response using Nova's built-in utilities.

The Request Object

Even if you don't explicitly use it, every handler is passed a request object.

A Note on Naming

In our examples, we use the name req. However, you can name this parameter anything you like. Because of how Luau works, Nova will always pass the Request object as the first argument, regardless of what you call it.

-- This works perfectly fine!
function Home.Get(banana)
    print(banana.path)

end

Request Properties

A standard Nova.Request contains:

• method: The HTTP method (e.g., "GET", "POST").
• path: The exact URL path requested.
• body: The parsed data sent by the client.
• headers: A table of all request headers.
• params: Data from dynamic route segments (like [id]).
• query: Data from the URL search string (like ?search=hi).

Using Types

Nova provides two main types for requests. You can access these by requiring Nova in your route file.

1. Nova.Request

Use this for standard routes where you don't need specific autocomplete for parameters or query strings.

function Home.Get(req: Nova.Request)
    local method = req.method -- This will show when you type it
end

2. Nova.RequestWith<T>

Use this when you want to add type-checking and autocomplete for req.params or req.query.

IMPORTANT

Types are for your editor's benefit. Nova does not automatically convert types (e.g., a string "123" won't automatically become a number 123), so you'll still need to parse them manually.

-- We tell the editor to expect an 'id' string
function User.Get(req: Nova.RequestWith<{ id: string }>)
    local userId = req.params.id -- Autocomplete works here!
end

The Response Utility

Nova provides a response utility to handle the boring stuff like setting Content-Type headers and status codes.

Response Types

There are 5 methods available:

• Nova.response.send(string) Plain text.
• Nova.response.json(table) JSON data (automatically encoded).
• Nova.response.html(string) HTML content.
• Nova.response.css(string) CSS content.
• Nova.response.js(string) JavaScript content.

The Response Config

Every response function accepts two arguments: (body, config). The config is an optional table where you can define a custom status code or extra headers.

function User.Get()
   -- Sending a 404 Not Found with a JSON body
    return Nova.response.json(
        { errorMsg = "User not found" }, 
        { status = 404 }
    ) 
end

You can also set custom headers, which is useful for things like authentication or custom metadata:

return Nova.response.json(
    { message = "Success" },
    { 
        status = 200,
        headers = {
            ["X-Custom-Header"] = "Nova-Framework"
        }
    }
)

Summary

• Naming: Call the first parameter req, request, or banana, it’s always the Request object.
• Types: Use Nova.Request for simplicity, or Nova.RequestWith<T> for additional params and query autocomplete.
• Headers: All incoming header keys are converted to lowercase.
• Responses: Use Nova.response methods with the (body, config) pattern to stay organized.