Getting Started

This guide will walk you through setting up your first Nova server.

Prerequisites

Before installing Nova, ensure you have the Lune runtime installed on your system.

Installation

Manual Installation

Add Nova to your project using the Pesde package manager:

pesde add bizwiz3/nova
pesde install

With a Boilerplate

Using the official Nova boilerplate:

pesde x bizwiz/nova_setup
pesde install

Project Structure

Nova is opinionated about where your code lives. By default, it looks for an app directory at the root of your project.

my-project/
├── app/
│   └── route.luau     <-- This maps to "/"
├── index.luau         <-- Your entry point
└── .env               <-- Environment variables (optional but recommended)

Creating Your First Server

In yourindex.luau file, initialize the Nova instance and tell it to listen on a port.

local Nova = require("@path/to/nova")

-- Initialize on port 8080
local app = Nova.new(8080)

app:listen(function()
    print("Nova is running on http://localhost:8080")
end)

Defining Your First Route

Create a folder named app and add a route.luau file inside it. This file must return a table containing functions named after HTTP methods (e.g., Get, Post, Put, Delete).

-- app/route.luau
local Nova = require("@path/to/nova")

local Home = {}

function Home.Get()
    return Nova.response({
        message = "Welcome to Nova!",
        version = "0.1.0"
    })
end

return Home

Running the Server

Run your entry file using Lune:

lune run index

pesde run index.luau

Navigate to http://localhost:8080 in your browser or use curl. You should see your JSON response and a colored log entry in your terminal.

Next Steps

Now that your server is running, learn how to create nested and dynamic routes in the Routing guide.