A Node.js and Express starter that's ready to run. It serves a small web server on port 3000 with a couple of example routes, so you can edit a handler, save, and watch nodemon restart it. A good base for an API or a backend.
Run npm run dev and an Express server starts on port 3000 with nodemon watching your files, so edits restart it automatically.
The full cloud editor with an integrated terminal, extensions and a debug config that ships in the .vscode folder.
Clone, commit and push from the terminal, or connect a GitHub repo whenever you're ready.
The starter serves a page at the root and example /ping and /api routes you can hit from the built-in browser or a REST client.
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime that runs outside the browser, built for servers and command-line tools. It's event-driven and non-blocking, which makes it a common choice for web APIs, real-time apps and tooling. Because the same language runs on both the client and the server, it's also the backbone of most full-stack JavaScript projects.
This workspace pairs Node.js with Express, the most widely used web framework in the ecosystem. Express handles routing and middleware so you can map URLs to handlers without writing the low-level HTTP plumbing yourself. The starter is small on purpose and ready to grow into a real API.
The entry point is src/app.js. It sets up Express with body-parser for JSON, serves an index.html at the root, answers /ping with pong, and mounts a routes file under /api. The port comes from process.env.PORT and falls back to 3000.
Anything you need beyond that installs from the terminal as a normal npm package. Add a database client, an auth library or more routes and the server picks them up on the next restart.
Run npm run dev in the terminal. That starts the server with nodemon, so it reloads every time you save a file. The server listens on port 3000 and you can open it in the built-in browser preview, or hit a route with curl http://localhost:3000/ping straight from the terminal.
If you'd rather step through the code, press F5 to launch it in debug mode using the config in the .vscode folder.
REST APIs, JSON backends, webhook receivers or the server half of a full-stack app. Start from the example routes, add the middleware and endpoints you need, and connect a database when you're ready.
Run npm run dev in the terminal. It uses nodemon, so the server restarts automatically whenever you save a change. It listens on port 3000, which you can open in the built-in browser preview.
Express, with body-parser for parsing JSON request bodies. The starter shows a root page, a /ping health check and an /api routes file you can build on.
Yes. Press F5 to launch the app in debug mode using the configuration in the .vscode folder, then set breakpoints and step through your handlers.
Install them from the terminal with npm. For example, add a database driver or an ORM, require it in your code, and nodemon restarts the server with the new dependency in place.
Yes. Use curl from the terminal, for example curl http://localhost:3000, or a REST client extension to send requests to your routes.
Yes. The NodeJS template runs on the free tier with no credit card required, so you can launch a workspace and start building right away.
