Setup with Deno

Prerequisites

• Deno v2+

Create a new project

mkdir my-app && cd my-app
deno init

Install emroute

Add to deno.json:

{
  "imports": {
    "@emkodev/emroute": "npm:@emkodev/emroute",
    "@emkodev/emroute/server": "npm:@emkodev/emroute/server",
    "@emkodev/emroute/runtime/universal/fs": "npm:@emkodev/emroute/runtime/universal/fs"
  }
}

Deno fetches and caches npm packages on demand — no node_modules/ or manual install step required.

Configure TypeScript

Deno has built-in TypeScript support. Add DOM types to your deno.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "lib": ["deno.ns", "esnext", "dom", "dom.iterable"]
  }
}

First route

Make a routes/ directory and add an HTML page:

<h1>Hello emroute</h1>
<p>This is my first page.</p>

To use Markdown (.page.md) instead, you'll need a markdown renderer. See Markdown Renderers — emkoma is built for emroute (handles router-slot and widget fences natively); marked and markdown-it also work with a small adapter.

Heads up: the root index.page.html also acts as the layout for every child route (e.g. /about). As soon as you add a second route, this file needs a <router-slot></router-slot> where the child should render — otherwise the child page won't appear. See Nesting.

Write the server

Create server.ts in your project root:

import { Emroute } from '@emkodev/emroute/server';
import { UniversalFsRuntime } from '@emkodev/emroute/runtime/universal/fs';

const appRoot = import.meta.dirname!;

const runtime = new UniversalFsRuntime(appRoot);

const emroute = await Emroute.create({
  spa: 'none',
  title: 'My App',
}, runtime);

Deno.serve({ port: 1420 }, async (req) => {
  const response = await emroute.handleRequest(req);
  if (response) return response;
  return new Response('Not Found', { status: 404 });
});

console.log('http://localhost:1420/');

UniversalFsRuntime uses node: APIs (node:fs/promises, node:path) which Deno supports natively through its Node compatibility layer.

Run it

deno run --allow-net --allow-read --allow-env server.ts

For runtime writes (e.g. live editing through runtime.command()), add --allow-write. SPA modes don't add extra permission requirements.

Verify

curl http://localhost:1420/html/    # → HTML page
curl http://localhost:1420/md/      # → Plain text rendering

Next: Pages