Getting Started

Create your first PEST.js project in under a minute.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18 or higher
npm, pnpm, or yarn

Create a project

Run the CLI

Terminal

npx pest-js-app

You'll be asked to configure your project:

Project name (kebab-case, e.g. my-api)
Description
Author (pulled from your git config)
Database ORM (Prisma, Drizzle, TypeORM, or None)
Database provider (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQLite)
Docker support
Package manager (npm, pnpm, or yarn)
Git init
Install dependencies

Start the dev server

Terminal

cd my-api
npm run dev

Terminal

cd my-api
pnpm dev

Terminal

cd my-api
yarn dev

Your API is now running at http://localhost:3000 with hot reload via tsx watch.

Build for production

Terminal

npm run build
npm start

Terminal

pnpm build
pnpm start

Terminal

yarn build
yarn start

Default routes

Every project ships with these endpoints:

Route	Method	Description
`/`	GET	Welcome message with API version and environment
`/health`	GET	Health check (status, timestamp, uptime)
`/api/examples`	GET	List all examples
`/api/examples`	POST	Create an example (validated with Zod)
`/api/examples/:id`	PUT	Update an example
`/api/examples/:id`	DELETE	Delete an example

Next steps

Project Structure to understand what was generated
Environment Variables to configure your app
Testing to run and write tests
Database if you selected an ORM
Deployment when you're ready to ship