Novu Framework requires a single HTTP endpoint (/api/novu or similar) to be exposed by your application. This endpoint is used to receive events from our Worker Engine.

You can view the Bridge Endpoint as a webhook endpoint that Novu will call when it needs to retrieve contextual information for a given subscriber and notification.

Using the npx novu init command creates a Bridge application for you with a Bridge Endpoint ready to go.

The serve function

We offer framework specific wrappers in form of an exported serve function that abstracts away:

  • Parsing the incoming request for GET, POST, PUT and OPTIONS requests
  • HMAC header authentication
  • Framework specific response and error handling

Currently, we offer serve functions for the following frameworks:

Writing a custom serve function

If we currently don’t support your framework, you can write a custom serve function like the following example:

import { type Request, type Response } from "express";
import { NovuRequestHandler, ServeHandlerOptions } from "@novu/framework";

export const serve = (options: ServeHandlerOptions): any => {
  const requestHandler = new NovuRequestHandler({
    frameworkName: "express",
    ...options,
    handler: (incomingRequest: Request, response: Response) => ({
      method: () => incomingRequest.method,
      headers: (key) => {
        const header = incomingRequest.headers[key];
        return Array.isArray(header) ? header[0] : header;
      },
      queryString: (key) => {
        const qs = incomingRequest.query[key];
        return Array.isArray(qs) ? qs[0] : qs;
      },
      body: () => incomingRequest.body,
      url: () =>
        new URL(
          incomingRequest.url,
          `https://${incomingRequest.headers.get("host") || ""}`
        ),
      transformResponse: ({ body, headers, status }) => {
        Object.entries(headers).forEach(([headerName, headerValue]) => {
          response.setHeader(headerName, headerValue);
        });

        return response.status(status).send(body);
      },
    }),
  });

  return requestHandler.createHandler();
};