Hono CLI

Hono CLI (hono) is a command-line tool for Hono, made for coding agents. It loads your Hono app directly, so an agent can inspect, test, and build the app without starting a server. Commands print JSON by default. routes, request, benchmark, optimize, and ssg take --plain when a human reads the output.

Installation

Install it in your project. Coding agents find it in package.json.

npm install -D @hono/cli

Or globally:

npm install -g @hono/cli

Output

Commands print JSON to stdout. snapshot prints batch JSONL lines instead.

• Success: { "ok": true, "data": ... } with exit code 0
• Failure: { "ok": false, "error": { "code", "message", "suggestions", "docs" } } with exit code 1

On failure, error.suggestions says what to try next, and error.docs points to a page on this site. Logs go to stderr.

hono --help starts with a short note for coding agents, and hono <command> --help has examples and notes for each command. An agent needs nothing else to use the CLI.

Commands

Command	What it does
hono routes [file]	Show routes of your Hono app
hono request [path] [file]	Send a request to your app using app.request()
hono batch <source> [file]	Run multiple requests from JSONL using app.request()
hono snapshot [file]	Print the current behavior as batch JSONL lines
hono benchmark [file]	Measure the performance of your Hono app
hono optimize [entry]	Build an optimized Hono app
hono ssg [file]	Generate static files from your Hono app

file is the path to your app file. When omitted, the app is found in src/index.ts, src/index.tsx, src/index.js, or src/index.jsx. TypeScript and JSX are supported.

routes

Show all routes of your Hono app, like showRoutes(). Routes are resolved from the real app instance, so mounted sub-apps and basePath are expanded.

hono routes
hono routes --verbose src/app.ts

• --verbose - include middleware
• --plain - human-readable output instead of JSON
• -e, --external <package> - mark a package as external (can be used multiple times)

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "router": "SmartRouter + RegExpRouter",
    "routes": [
      {
        "method": "GET",
        "path": "/",
        "name": "[handler]",
        "isMiddleware": false
      },
      {
        "method": "POST",
        "path": "/posts",
        "name": "[handler]",
        "isMiddleware": false
      }
    ]
  }
}

request

Send a request to your app through app.request(). No server is needed. path defaults to /.

hono request /
hono request /users/123
hono request /api/users -X POST -d '{"name":"Alice"}'
hono request /api/protected -H 'Authorization: Bearer token'
cat payload.json | hono request /api/users -X POST -d @-
hono request /api/users/123 --trace
hono request / --runtime bun

• -X, --method <method> - HTTP method (default: GET)
• -d, --data <data> - request body (@file reads a file, @- reads stdin)
• -H, --header <header> - custom header (can be used multiple times)
• --trace - include the matched routes in the output
• --runtime <runtime> - run the app on node (default), bun, deno, or workerd
• --compact - one-line JSON without the headers
• --no-bindings - skip loading the local Cloudflare bindings
• -w, --watch - watch for changes and resend the request
• -o, --output <file> - write the response body to a file
• --plain - print the raw body like curl (-i adds the status and headers, -I shows only them)

A JSON response body is embedded as an object:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "status": 200,
    "headers": { "content-type": "application/json" },
    "body": { "message": "Hello World" }
  }
}

With --trace, the output has matchedRoutes: which middleware and handler matched, and which one responded. A 404 result suggests running it.

You can also pass the app code from stdin with - as the file. app is predefined and exported for you:

echo 'app.get("/hello", (c) => c.json({ ok: true }))' | hono request /hello -

Cloudflare bindings

In a project with a wrangler config, c.env carries the real local bindings (KV, D1, R2, vars) automatically, while the app runs on Node.js. This works in request, batch, and snapshot. Skip it with --no-bindings. It needs wrangler installed in the project.

--runtime workerd runs the whole app inside workerd instead, with the wrangler config. It is heavier, but it is the full runtime. The entry is main in the wrangler config, so pass no file argument.

batch

Run multiple requests from JSONL in one call, in order, against one app instance. In-memory state carries between steps.

hono batch - <<'JSONL'
{"path":"/users","expect":{"status":200}}
{"method":"POST","path":"/users","body":{"name":"Momo"},"expect":{"status":201,"body":{"name":"Momo"}},"save":{"id":".id"}}
{"path":"/users/{{id}}","expect":{"status":200}}
{"method":"DELETE","path":"/users/{{id}}","expect":{"status":204}}
JSONL

One JSON object per line: method, path, body, headers, expect, and save.

• expect declares the acceptance criteria. status matches exactly. body is a deep partial match: declared fields must match, and extra fields in the response are ignored.
• save stores a value from the response body by dot path, and later steps use it as .
• A step without expect passes on any 2xx or 3xx and fails on a 4xx or 5xx. To accept a 4xx on purpose, declare it with expect.status.
• A failed step carries diff, one line per mismatch.

The output has the actual status and body of each step, pass per step, and a summary. Rerun until failed is 0.

• -H, --header <header> - a shared header for every step
• --compact - print only the failed steps and the summary
• --runtime <runtime> - node (default) or workerd
• --no-bindings - skip loading the local Cloudflare bindings

snapshot

Print the current behavior of the app as batch JSONL lines, to stdout. No file is written.

hono snapshot
hono snapshot --status-only src/app.ts

Paramless GET routes are executed, and their actual status and body become the expect. Routes with params and non-GET routes are printed without one, for you to fill in. One probe line records the response for a path that matches no route.

Capture before a refactor, then rerun the lines with hono batch until failed is 0.

• --status-only - capture only the status codes, not the bodies
• --runtime <runtime> - node (default) or workerd
• --no-bindings - skip loading the local Cloudflare bindings

benchmark

Measure the performance of your Hono app. It is a micro benchmark of routing and handlers: app.request() is called directly, with no HTTP stack and no network. Each run happens in a fresh process, so results are comparable.

hono benchmark
hono benchmark -P /users
hono benchmark -P /users -X POST -d '{"name":"Alice"}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
hono benchmark --hono 4.12.3 --hono 4.13.0
hono benchmark --hono ../hono

• -P, --path <path> - benchmark only this path (can be used multiple times)
• -X, -d, -H - the method, body, and headers for -P paths
• --duration <ms> - how long to measure each route (default: 500)
• --warmup <count> - requests before measuring (default: 30)
• --hono <version-or-path> - benchmark the same app with another Hono: an npm version, or a local checkout

A few percent of difference is noise. To compare, run it more than once and check that the difference repeats.

optimize

Build an optimized Hono app. The router is replaced with a prepared one, and unused Hono APIs are removed. For a plain bundle, use your normal build tool. This command exists for the Hono-specific optimizations.

hono optimize
hono optimize -m -o dist/app.js

• -o, --outfile <outfile> - output file (default: dist/index.js)
• -m, --minify - minify the output
• -t, --target <target> - environment target, such as node24, deno2, or es2024 (default: node20)
• --request-body-api-removal <mode> - auto (default), force, or disable. Request body APIs are removed only when every route method is strictly GET, HEAD, or OPTIONS.
• --no-hono-api-removal - keep unused Hono APIs
• --no-context-response-api-removal - keep unused response methods of Context

ssg

Generate static files from your Hono app, like the SSG helper.

hono ssg
hono ssg -o dist/static src/app.ts
hono ssg --exclude '/api/*'

• -o, --outdir <dir> - output directory (default: static)
• --include <path> / --exclude <path> - select routes by path. * matches anything