Retrieval Augmented Goose
Build your own AI search engine. With great goose intelligence comes great responsibility.
HONC | hɒŋk |
abbreviation informal
HONC is an modular collection of choice technologies for building lightweight, type-safe, edge-enabled data apis that scale seamlessly to their demand.
It's 2025, I'm building a data API and I'm using TypeScript. What do I use?- Every developer out there
TL;DR
npm create honc-app@latest
npm create honc-app@latest
Most of the talk about the "best stack" in the TypeScript world is about "server components", "partial hydrations" and maybe SPAs. What if you need a simple backend to run a background job, or power your third-party integrations (✨AI✨)? In other words: something to receive some JSON, store it, process it, and return it. To create a data API you will need:
- 🪿 A database (duh)
- 🪿 An ORM layer
- 🪿 A router/middleware framework to help you wire it all together
- 🪿 Someone else's computer to deploy it all on
┏┓
┃┃╱╲ In this
┃╱╱╲╲ house
╱╱╭╮╲╲ we love
▔▏┗┛▕▔ & appreciate
╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲
| JSON |
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔Overview
Hono
Hono. So hot right now. Hono is a Typescript framework for apis (and more!) that looks a lot like Express, except it’s smaller (14kB smoll), lighter, faster, and runs anywhere that supports Web Standards. We’re talking Cloudflare, Deno, Bun, Vercel, Netlify, Node, and more. It has a bunch of helpful middleware to get you going, and a friendly and helpful community.
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ORM (Drizzle)
You either use an ORM or you live long enough to build one yourself. Typescript apis need some sort of contract between the data and the application code. Do you need a traditional ORM for this? No, you do not. But we really wanted to put an O in HONC. And Drizzle ORM (our tool of choice) has a typesafe query builder for tons of relational databases.
Nameyourdatabase
Cloudflare D1 and Postgres are bopping these days. Need a lightweight SQL database at the edge? D1's got you covered with SQLite compatibility and Cloudflare's global network. Need vector storage for your AI apps? Vectorize or pgvector have got your back. Need to stash some JSON blobs? Done. Both D1 and Neon are serverless databases that grow right along with your app, no AWS certification needed. We also like Supabase, which throws in real-time updates, authentication and an edge runtime for good measure. Whether you're going edge-first with D1 or need the full power of Postgres, you've got options.
Cloud (Cloudflare)
We need a place to run our app, and unless you're nostalgic for the soothing hum of a box in your basement, the cloud is where it's at. Cloudflare Workers loves Hono as much as we do. Cloudflare's got the whole storage suite covered: KV for your key-value needs, Queues for background processing, and R2 for object storage that won't break the bank with egress fees. It's the full package when you're building at the edge.
Hono
Hono. So hot right now. Hono is a Typescript framework for apis (and more!) that looks a lot like Express, except it’s smaller (14kB smoll), lighter, faster, and runs anywhere that supports Web Standards. We’re talking Cloudflare, Deno, Bun, Vercel, Netlify, Node, and more. It has a bunch of helpful middleware to get you going, and a friendly and helpful community.
ORM (Drizzle)
You either use an ORM or you live long enough to build one yourself. Typescript apis need some sort of contract between the data and the application code. Do you need a traditional ORM for this? No, you do not. But we really wanted to put an O in HONC. And Drizzle ORM (our tool of choice) has a typesafe query builder for tons of relational databases.
Nameyourdatabase
Cloudflare D1 and Postgres are bopping these days. Need a lightweight SQL database at the edge? D1's got you covered with SQLite compatibility and Cloudflare's global network. Need vector storage for your AI apps? Vectorize or pgvector have got your back. Need to stash some JSON blobs? Done. Both D1 and Neon are serverless databases that grow right along with your app, no AWS certification needed. We also like Supabase, which throws in real-time updates, authentication and an edge runtime for good measure. Whether you're going edge-first with D1 or need the full power of Postgres, you've got options.
Cloud (Cloudflare)
We need a place to run our app, and unless you're nostalgic for the soothing hum of a box in your basement, the cloud is where it's at. Cloudflare Workers loves Hono as much as we do. Cloudflare's got the whole storage suite covered: KV for your key-value needs, Queues for background processing, and R2 for object storage that won't break the bank with egress fees. It's the full package when you're building at the edge.
Examples
Strava calories converter
Using webhooks, convert Strava activities to calories. Watch those calogeese fly off!
The Honcanator
Generate images of geese. Rest assured, you'll be back.
Agitated goose PR reviewer
Have a goose judging your GitHub pull requests. Warning: you might get bamgoosled!
Placegoose
Honk if you need some honkin data, like, right now!
Uptime Monitor
Downtime monitors are so 2023. Monitor websites, see if they're up. Honk if they're not.
Quickstart
npm create honc-app@latest
# or yarn or pnpm...