Validation

Hono provides only a very thin Validator. But, it can be powerful when combined with a third-party Validator. In addition, the RPC feature allows you to share API specifications with your clients through types.

Manual validator

First, introduce a way to validate incoming values without using the third-party Validator.

Import validator from hono/validator.

import { validator } from 'hono/validator'

To validate form data, specify form as the first argument and a callback as the second argument. In the callback, validates the value and return the validated values at the end. The validator can be used as middleware.

app.post(
  '/posts',
  validator('form', (value, c) => {
    const body = value['body']
    if (!body || typeof body !== 'string') {
      return c.text('Invalid!', 400)
    }
    return {
      body: body,
    }
  }),
  //...

Within the handler you can get the validated value with c.req.valid('form').

, (c) => {
  const { body } = c.req.valid('form')
  // ... do something
  return c.json(
    {
      message: 'Created!',
    },
    201
  )
}

Validation targets include json, query, header, param and cookie in addition to form.

Multiple validators

You can also include multiple validators to validate different parts of request:

app.post(
  '/posts/:id',
  validator('param', ...),
  validator('query', ...),
  validator('json', ...),
  (c) => {
    //... 
  }

With Zod

You can use Zod, one of third-party validators. We recommend using a third-party validator.

Install from the Npm registry.

npm

npm i zod

yarn

yarn add zod

pnpm

pnpm add zod

bun

bun add zod

Import z from zod.

import { z } from 'zod'

Write your schema.

const schema = z.object({
  body: z.string(),
})

You can use the schema in the callback function for validation and return the validated value.

const route = app.post(
  '/posts',
  validator('form', (value, c) => {
    const parsed = schema.safeParse(value)
    if (!parsed.success) {
      return c.text('Invalid!', 401)
    }
    return parsed.data
  }),
  (c) => {
    const { body } = c.req.valid('form')
    // ... do something
    return c.json(
      {
        message: 'Created!',
      },
      201
    )
  }
)

Zod Validator Middleware

You can use the Zod Validator Middleware to make it even easier.

npm

npm i @hono/zod-validator

yarn

yarn add @hono/zod-validator

pnpm

pnpm add @hono/zod-validator

bun

bun add @hono/zod-validator

And import zValidator.

import { zValidator } from '@hono/zod-validator'

And write as follows.

const route = app.post(
  '/posts',
  zValidator(
    'form',
    z.object({
      body: z.string(),
    })
  ),
  (c) => {
    // ...
  }
)