adonis5-nats-broker

NATS for AdonisJS v5 — request/reply, JetStream, KV, and Object Store, all in the controller / middleware / request-response model you already know.

adonis5-nats-broker lets an AdonisJS service expose NATS subjects as routes handled by controllers, call other services with request / publish, consume JetStream streams in that same controller style, and use injected KV and Object Store managers — reusing AdonisJS’s middleware, validator, exception handler, and logger throughout.

If you can build an HTTP API in AdonisJS, you already know how to use this.

// start/broker.ts                          app/Controllers/Nats/UsersController.ts
Broker.route('get.users', 'UsersController.index')
                                            export default class UsersController {
// elsewhere — call it like fetch():          public async index({ response }) {
const res = await Broker.request('get.users') //   return response.ok([{ id: 1 }])
res.body // => [{ id: 1 }]                       }
                                            }

How it maps to HTTP

AdonisJS HTTP	adonis5-nats-broker
URL + method (GET /users/:id)	NATS subject (get.users.{id})
Route param :id	Subject token {id}
Controller in app/Controllers	Controller in app/Controllers/Nats
Middleware in app/Middleware	Middleware in app/Middleware/Nats
ctx.request / ctx.response	the same API
HTTP status code	a status header on the reply
calling another service (fetch)	Broker.request() / Broker.publish() / Jet.publish()

Features

• Core NATS — request/reply routes, fire-and-forget publish, route groups, middleware.
• JetStream — persistent publish with acks, and consumers in the controller style with ack / nak / term / working.
• KV & Object Store — injected managers, usable from anywhere (including HTTP handlers).
• Declarative resources — describe streams, consumers, and buckets in config; reconcile with one idempotent command.
• One shared connection — reused across requests, publishes, JetStream, KV, and Object Store.
• Built on the modular nats.js v3 (@nats-io/*). Requires AdonisJS v5 and Node.js 18+.

Table of contents

• Quick start
• Configuration
• Routes & controllers
  • Controllers
  • Route groups
  • Requesting & publishing
  • Request & response
• Middleware
• Exception handling
• JetStream
• Key-Value store
• Object store
• Connection events
• Testing
• Ace commands
• Migrating from v1

Quick start

1. Install & configure

npm i adonis5-nats-broker
node ace configure adonis5-nats-broker   # writes config/nats.ts + start/broker.ts, wires the provider
node ace init:nats:handler               # creates app/Exceptions/Nats/Handler.ts

2. Run a NATS server (the -js flag enables JetStream / KV / Object Store)

# docker-compose.yaml
services:
  nats:
    image: 'nats'
    command: '-js'
    ports:
      - '4222:4222'

docker compose up nats

3. Define a route and a controller

// start/broker.ts
import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

Broker.route('get.users', 'UsersController.index')

node ace make:nats:controller User

// app/Controllers/Nats/UsersController.ts
import type { NatsContextContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsContext'

export default class UsersController {
  public async index({ response }: NatsContextContract) {
    return response.ok([{ id: 1, name: 'Jon' }])
  }
}

4. Call it — from an HTTP controller, a test, or another service:

import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

const res = await Broker.request('get.users')
res.body // => [{ id: 1, name: 'Jon' }]

That’s the whole loop. Everything below builds on it.

Configuration

configure writes config/nats.ts. The full shape:

import Env from '@ioc:Adonis/Core/Env'
import type { ConfigContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

const config: ConfigContract = {
  // Process entrypoints that open the connection and start consuming on boot.
  runModes: ['test.ts', 'server.js', 'server.ts'],
  ignoreMiddlewares: ['BodyParserMiddleware'],
  generateRequestId: true,

  // The single shared connection, reused everywhere.
  connection: {
    name: Env.get('NATS_NAME'),
    servers: Env.get('NATS_SERVER'),
    maxReconnectAttempts: 10,
    reconnect: true,
    timeout: 30000,
  },

  namespaces: {
    controllers: 'app/Controllers/Nats',
    middleware: 'app/Middleware/Nats',
    exceptions: 'app/Exceptions/Nats',
    exceptionHandler: 'app/Exceptions/Nats/Handler',
    listeners: 'app/Controllers/Nats',
  },

  // Core (non-JetStream) request/reply + publish behaviour.
  core: {
    routes: { options: {}, prefix: '' },
    request: { timeout: 30000, prefix: '', headers: {}, qs: {} },
    publish: { prefix: '', headers: {}, qs: {} },
  },

  // JetStream / KV / Object Store — see their sections below.
  jetstream: { enabled: false, streams: [], consumers: [] },
  kv: { buckets: [] },
  objectStore: { buckets: [] },
}

export default config

Run modes & the lazy connection. Only processes whose entrypoint is listed in runModes (the server, tests) open the connection on boot and start consuming routes and JetStream messages. Any other process — an HTTP server, an ace command — connects lazily the first time it uses the broker, JetStream, KV, or Object Store. That means you can publish, request, or read a KV bucket straight from an HTTP controller without running the NATS consumer side there.

Routes & controllers

Register routes in start/broker.ts. A pattern like get.users.{id} subscribes to the subject get.users.*, and {id} becomes a route param.

import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

Broker.route('get.users', 'UsersController.index')
Broker.route('post.users', 'UsersController.store')
Broker.route('get.users.{id}', 'UsersController.show')
Broker.route('put.users.{id}', 'UsersController.update')
Broker.route('delete.users.{id}', 'UsersController.destroy')

Controllers

Controllers live in app/Controllers/Nats (configurable via namespaces.controllers). Generate one with node ace make:nats:controller User.

import type { NatsContextContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsContext'
import { schema } from '@ioc:Adonis/Core/Validator'

export default class UsersController {
  public async index({ response }: NatsContextContract) {
    return response.ok([{ id: 1, name: 'Jon' }])
  }

  public async show({ request, response }: NatsContextContract) {
    const id = request.param('id') // from the subject token {id}
    return response.ok({ id })
  }

  public async store({ request, response }: NatsContextContract) {
    const payload = await request.validate({
      schema: schema.create({ name: schema.string() }),
    })
    return response.created({ message: 'User created', data: payload })
  }
}

A controller can return a value or call a response.* helper. The response status travels in a status header, not the body.

Route groups

Group routes to share a subject prefix and/or a middleware stack, and attach middleware to a single route by chaining .middleware(). Groups nest; prefixes and middleware compose from the outside in.

import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

// Every route below is prefixed with `admin.` and runs the `auth` middleware.
Broker.group(() => {
  Broker.route('get.users', 'UsersController.index')                 // admin.get.users
  Broker.route('get.users.{id}', 'UsersController.show')             // admin.get.users.{id}
    .middleware('audit')                                             // auth + audit (this route only)
})
  .prefix('admin')
  .middleware('auth')

// Middleware on a single, ungrouped route.
Broker.route('get.health', 'HealthController.index').middleware('rate')

// Nested groups — prefixes (api.v1.*) and middleware both compose.
Broker.group(() => {
  Broker.group(() => {
    Broker.route('get.stats', 'StatsController.index')               // api.v1.get.stats, runs auth
  }).prefix('v1')
})
  .prefix('api')
  .middleware('auth')

The three forms combine freely — the stateful Broker.middleware(...) stack (below), group middleware, and per-route .middleware(...) all run in order, group middleware first.

Requesting & publishing

Call another service and await its reply, or fire-and-forget:

import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

// Request/reply — always resolves with { body, headers, request };
// check res.headers.status to handle non-2xx replies.
const res = await Broker.request('get.users', { page: 1 }, { headers: {}, qs: {} })
console.log(res.body, res.headers.status)

// Fire-and-forget.
await Broker.publish('user.created', { id: 1 })

Request & response

Inside a controller, ctx.request and ctx.response mirror the AdonisJS HTTP API:

request	response
body(), qs(), all()	ok(), created(), accepted(), noContent()
input(key, default)	badRequest(), unauthorized(), forbidden()
param(key, default)	notFound(), unprocessableEntity()
header(key, default)	internalServerError(), status(code).send(body)
validate(schema)	header(key, value)
set(key, value) / get(key)	…and the rest of the HTTP status helpers

Middleware

Middleware run before the controller and can short-circuit it. There are three ways to attach them; they compose.

Per route / per group (recommended):

Broker.route('get.users', 'UsersController.index').middleware('auth')
Broker.group(() => { /* ... */ }).middleware('auth')

Stateful stack — Broker.middleware() sets a stack applied to every subsequent route() until changed (call with no args to clear):

Broker.middleware('auth')                       // enable for the routes below
Broker.route('get.users', 'UsersController.index')
Broker.route('post.users', 'UsersController.store')
Broker.middleware()                             // clear
Broker.route('get.countries', 'CountriesController.index')

Create a middleware class with node ace make:nats:middleware Auth (in app/Middleware/Nats):

import type { NatsContextContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsContext'

export default class Auth {
  // `guards` come from the route, e.g. .middleware('auth:web,api')
  public async handle(
    { request, response }: NatsContextContract,
    next: () => Promise<void>,
    guards?: string[]
  ) {
    if (!request.header('authorization')) {
      return response.unauthorized({ message: 'authorization header is required' })
    }
    request.set('user', { id: 1, name: 'jon' })
    await next()
  }
}

Register it in start/kernel.ts. The broker reuses AdonisJS’s middleware registry, but a NATS middleware’s handle takes a NatsContextContract rather than the HTTP context — so cast the value past the HTTP middleware typing:

// Named — referenced by name, optionally with args (`auth:web,api`)
Server.middleware.registerNamed({
  auth: (() => import('App/Middleware/Nats/Auth')) as any,
})

// Global — runs for every NATS request
Server.middleware.register([(() => import('App/Middleware/Nats/LogRequest')) as any])

// start/broker.ts — pass args to the middleware
Broker.route('get.profile', 'UserController.profile').middleware('auth:web,api')

Exception handling

Thrown errors are routed to app/Exceptions/Nats/Handler.ts (created by node ace init:nats:handler):

import Logger from '@ioc:Adonis/Core/Logger'
import NatsExceptionHandler from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsExceptionHandler'
import type { NatsContextContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsContext'

export default class ExceptionHandler extends NatsExceptionHandler {
  constructor() {
    super(Logger)
  }

  public async handle(error: any, ctx: NatsContextContract) {
    if (error.code === 'E_VALIDATION_FAILURE') {
      return ctx.response.status(422).send(error.messages)
    }
    return super.handle(error, ctx)
  }
}

Create custom exceptions with node ace make:nats:exception UnAuthorized, then raise them anywhere — optionally self-handling via a handle method:

import UnAuthorized from 'App/Exceptions/Nats/UnAuthorizedException'

throw new UnAuthorized('You are not authorized', 403, 'E_UNAUTHORIZED')

import { Exception } from '@adonisjs/core/build/standalone'
import type { NatsContextContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsContext'

export default class UnAuthorizedException extends Exception {
  public async handle(error: this, ctx: NatsContextContract) {
    ctx.response.status(error.status).send(error.message)
  }
}

JetStream

JetStream adds persistent, replayable messaging. Enable it in config, declare your resources, then sync them to the server.

1. Declare streams and durable consumers in config/nats.ts:

jetstream: {
  enabled: true,
  streams: [
    { name: 'ORDERS', subjects: ['orders.>'], storage: 'file', retention: 'limits' },
  ],
  consumers: [
    { stream: 'ORDERS', durable_name: 'orders-worker', filter_subject: 'orders.created', ack_policy: 'explicit' },
  ],
},

2. Sync them to the server — idempotent, so it’s safe to re-run. It reports each resource as created, updated, or exists:

node ace nats:sync

Order matters: streams are infrastructure you provision with nats:sync. Durable consumers bound with Jet.consume are created on app startup if missing, but the stream must already exist first.

Publish (persistent, returns the server ack):

import Jet from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsJetStream'

const ack = await Jet.publish('orders.created', { id: 1, total: 99 })
console.log(ack.seq) // stored sequence number

Consume in the controller style. Register in start/broker.ts and scaffold a listener with node ace make:nats:listener Order:

import Jet from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsJetStream'

Jet.consume(
  { stream: 'ORDERS', durable: 'orders-worker', filterSubject: 'orders.created' },
  'OrderListener.onCreated'
)

import type { NatsContextContract } from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsContext'

export default class OrderListener {
  public async onCreated({ request, message }: NatsContextContract) {
    const order = request.body()
    // ... process the order ...

    // Auto-acked when the action returns, auto-naked when it throws.
    // Or take manual control via ctx.message:
    //   message?.ack()             done
    //   message?.nak(5000)         retry after 5s
    //   message?.term('bad data')  never redeliver
    //   message?.working()         reset the ack-wait timer for long work
  }
}

Jet.consume options: stream (required), durable / name, filterSubject, middleware (named middleware), ackPolicy, deliverPolicy, maxDeliver, ackWait, maxMessages, and autoAck (default true).

Key-Value store

import KV from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsKV'

const sessions = await KV.bucket('sessions')   // created if needed, cached per name
await sessions.put('user:1', JSON.stringify({ name: 'jon' }))

const entry = await sessions.get('user:1')
console.log(entry?.json()) // { name: 'jon' }

const watch = await sessions.watch()
for await (const e of watch) {
  console.log(e.key, e.operation)
}

bucket() returns the native nats.js KV, so its full API (keys, history, purge, delete, watch, …) is available. Declare buckets under kv.buckets in config to provision them with nats:sync.

Object store

import ObjectStore from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsObjectStore'

// Buffer/string convenience helpers
await ObjectStore.putBlob('uploads', 'avatar.png', someUint8Array)
const bytes = await ObjectStore.getBlob('uploads', 'avatar.png') // Uint8Array | null

// Or the native streaming ObjectStore API
const bucket = await ObjectStore.bucket('uploads')
const list = await bucket.list()

Connection events

The shared connection forwards its lifecycle onto the AdonisJS event emitter:

import Event from '@ioc:Adonis/Core/Event'

Event.on('nats:connect', ({ connection }) => {})
Event.on('nats:reconnect', ({ connection }) => {})
Event.on('nats:disconnect', ({ connection }) => {})
Event.on('nats:closed', ({ connection, error }) => {})
Event.on('nats:error', ({ connection, error }) => {})

Testing

test.ts is a run mode, so when the test app boots it opens the connection and starts consuming — your routes answer requests sent from within the test. A NATS server must be running (and node ace nats:sync applied if you use JetStream / KV / Object Store).

Using the broker directly (recommended)

Broker.request always resolves with the response, so assert on res.headers.status and res.body — no try/catch needed. Generate a spec with node ace make:nats:test Users:

import { test } from '@japa/runner'
import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

test.group('Users', () => {
  test('lists users', async ({ assert }) => {
    const res = await Broker.request('v1.get.users', {}, { headers: { authorization: 'test' } })
    assert.equal(res.headers.status, 200)
    assert.deepInclude(res.body[0], { id: 1, name: 'Jon' })
  })

  test('rejects without auth', async ({ assert }) => {
    const res = await Broker.request('v1.get.users')
    assert.equal(res.headers.status, 401)
  })
})

JetStream, KV, and Object Store are tested the same way — import the binding and call it:

import Jet from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsJetStream'

test('publishes to a stream', async ({ assert }) => {
  const ack = await Jet.publish('users.created', { id: 42 })
  assert.isAbove(ack.seq, 0)
})

Using the test client plugin (optional)

The package also ships a japa plugin that adds a broker test context with chainable assertions. Register it in tests/bootstrap.ts:

import { natsClient } from 'adonis5-nats-broker/build/src/test'
import Broker from '@ioc:Adonis/Addons/NatsBroker'

export const plugins: Required<Config>['plugins'] = [
  assert(),
  apiClient(),
  natsClient(Broker),
]

test('get users', async ({ broker }) => {
  const response = await broker.request('v1.get.users', {}, { headers: { authorization: 'test' } })
  response.assertStatus(200)
  response.assertBodyContains([{ id: 1 }])
})

Ace commands

Command	Description
node ace configure adonis5-nats-broker	Scaffold config/nats.ts and start/broker.ts, wire the provider
node ace init:nats:handler	Create the global exception handler
node ace make:nats:controller <Name>	New controller
node ace make:nats:listener <Name>	New JetStream listener (consumer controller)
node ace make:nats:middleware <Name>	New middleware
node ace make:nats:exception <Name>	New custom exception
node ace make:nats:test <Name>	New NATS test
node ace nats:sync	Reconcile streams, consumers, and KV / Object Store buckets from config

Migrating from v1

v2 is a breaking rewrite. The main changes:

• Config reshape — core request/reply settings moved under a core key: routes → core.routes, request → core.request, publish → core.publish. New jetstream, kv, and objectStore sections were added. Re-run node ace configure adonis5-nats-broker to regenerate config/nats.ts, then port your values.
• One shared connection — request / publish no longer open a connection per call; everything reuses a single lazily-opened connection.
• nats.js v3 — the package now depends on the modular @nats-io/* packages instead of nats@2. Application code that only uses the @ioc:Adonis/Addons/Nats* bindings needs no changes.
• New capabilities — JetStream, KV, Object Store, route groups, per-route middleware, and node ace nats:sync.

License

MIT

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