nest README

The project's README from github.com/nestjs/nest. As one markdown file: README.md.

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A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient and scalable server-side applications.

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Description

Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses modern JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming).

Under the hood, Nest makes use of Express, but also provides compatibility with a wide range of other libraries, like Fastify, allowing for easy use of the myriad of third-party plugins which are available.

Philosophy

In recent years, thanks to Node.js, JavaScript has become the “lingua franca” of the web for both front-end and back-end applications, giving rise to awesome projects like Angular, React, and Vue, which improve developer productivity and enable the construction of fast, testable, and extensible frontend applications. However, on the server-side, while there are a lot of superb libraries, helpers, and tools for Node, none of them effectively solve the main problem - the architecture.

Nest aims to provide an application architecture out of the box which allows for effortless creation of highly testable, scalable, and loosely coupled and easily maintainable applications. The architecture is heavily inspired by Angular.

Getting started

Questions

For questions and support please use the official Discord channel. The issue list of this repo is exclusively for bug reports and feature requests.

Issues

Please make sure to read the Issue Reporting Checklist before opening an issue. Issues not conforming to the guidelines may be closed immediately.

Consulting

With official support, you can get expert help straight from the Nest core team. We provide dedicated technical support, migration strategies, advice on best practices (and design decisions), PR reviews, and team augmentation. Read more about support here.

Support

Nest is an MIT-licensed open source project. It can grow thanks to the sponsors and support from the amazing backers. If you'd like to join them, please read more here.

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License

Nest is MIT licensed.

nest (nestjs/nest)

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76.9K ·GitHub
What is this?Nest is a progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, scalable, enterprise-grade server-side applications using TypeScript (while staying compatible with plain JavaScript).
Is this a framework or just a library of helpers?It's a full application framework, not a loose set of utilities: it enforces an opinionated architecture (modules, controllers, providers) inspired by Angular, and runs on top of Express by default while also supporting Fastify as a drop-in HTTP adapter.
How do I get a Nest project running?The official guide at docs.nestjs.com walks through scaffolding and running a project, typically via the Nest CLI; the repo itself is built with standard TypeScript project-reference commands like 'build' and 'build:dev'.
Do I need TypeScript, or can I use plain JavaScript?Node.js 20 or later is required; TypeScript is the primary language Nest is built with, but it explicitly preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript.
What's the catch compared to using Express directly?Nest adds an opinionated, Angular-style layer of modules, decorators, and dependency injection on top of Express/Fastify, which means more structure to learn upfront than writing raw Express routes.
Who is Nest built for?It targets backend/Node.js developers who need enterprise-grade, maintainable server architecture rather than a minimal routing library.
Why is Nest's architecture modeled after Angular?Author Kamil Mysliwiec built Nest to bring Angular's modular, dependency-injection-driven structure to the Node.js backend, since existing Node libraries solved individual problems but not overall application architecture.
Does Nest support building microservices?Yes, microservices is one of its core supported patterns, letting you reuse the same modules/providers model for distributed services instead of only HTTP APIs.
Can I get paid support for Nest?Yes, the Nest core team offers official consulting with dedicated technical support, migration strategies, architecture advice, and PR reviews.
Does Nest lock me into Express?No, Nest abstracts the HTTP layer so you can swap Express for Fastify as the underlying server while keeping the same application code.
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