File-based Routing

Reference: Deno File-based Routing Tutorial

File-based routing is Deserve's core concept - your file system structure becomes your API structure automatically, following the same pattern as Next.js but for Deno APIs.

How It Works

Deserve scans your routes directory and creates endpoints from file structure. All supported extensions (.ts, .js, .tsx, .jsx, .mjs, .cjs) work the same way:

routes/
├── index.ts               → GET /
├── about.mjs              → GET /about
├── users.js               → GET /users
├── users/[id].ts          → GET /users/:id
└── users/[id]/
    └── posts/
        └── [postId].jsx   → GET /users/:id/posts/:postId

Core Rules

1. File Names Become Routes

• index.ts, index.js, index.mjs → / (root)
• about.ts, about.js, about.mjs → /about
• users.ts, users.js, users.cjs → /users

All supported extensions (.ts, .js, .tsx, .jsx, .mjs, .cjs) work identically.

2. Folders Create Nested Routes

• users/[id].ts → /users/:id
• users/[id]/posts.ts → /users/:id/posts

3. Dynamic Parameters Use [param] Syntax

• [id].ts → :id parameter
• [userId].ts → :userId parameter
• [postId].ts → :postId parameter

4. HTTP Methods Are Exported Functions

// 1. Import Context type
import type { Context } from '@neabyte/deserve'

// 2. Export GET → route GET /; POST → POST /
export function GET(ctx: Context): Response {
  return ctx.send.json({ users: [] })
}

export async function POST(ctx: Context): Promise<Response> {
  const data = await ctx.body()
  return ctx.send.json({ message: 'User created', data })
}

// 3. Other methods: PUT, PATCH, DELETE, etc. — export with same name
// export function [method](ctx: Context): Response { ... }

5. Case-Sensitive URLs

URLs are case-sensitive following HTTP standards:

• /Users/John ≠ /users/john
• /API/v1 ≠ /api/v1

6. Valid Filename Characters

Files can contain specific rules:

• a-z, A-Z, 0-9 - Alphanumeric characters
• _ - Underscore (do not prefix path segment — see below)
• - - Dash
• . - Dot
• ~ - Tilde
• + - Plus sign
• [ ] - Brackets for dynamic parameters

Skipped segments: Folders or file names that start with _ or @ are not registered as routes (e.g. _layout.ts, @middleware.ts, folder _components/). Useful for support files that are not endpoints.