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Quick Start

Deploy a Serverless Node.js REST API to AWS in 3 Minutes Using Less.

In this tutorial, we'll guide you through creating and deploying a "Hello, World" REST API, demonstrating the ease of use of Less. With automatic cloud resource provisioning, infinite auto-scaling, security best practices, fault-tolerance, and more by default, it's never been easier to get code to production!

Create your Less project​

Let's create our first Less project by creating a /less folder.

Add Less to your existing projects

All you need is a /less folder to start using Less. Drop Less into an existing project and start leveraging Less features. Make your life easier!

mkdir -p getting_started_with_less/less
cd getting_started_with_less

Create your REST API route​

The Less CLI provides a suite of commands to streamline resource creation. Let's explore our options.

npx @chuva.io/less-cli create -h
Usage: less-cli create [options] [command]

Streamline your development by creating your Less files/resources and
boilerplate code automatically.

Options:
  -h, --help                display help for command

Commands:
  route [options]           Creates your HTTP routes.
  socket [options]          Creates your Web Sockets and socket channels or
                            adds channels to existing sockets.
  topic [options]           Creates Topics and Subscribers.
  subscribers [options]     Creates Subscribers to Topics.
  cron [options]            Creates your CRON Jobs.
  shared-module [options]   Creates your Shared Code Modules.
  cloud-function [options]  Creates your Cloud Functions.
  help [command]            display help for command

We can see that Less allows us to create all of our cloud resources using the CLI. Let's focus on creating our HTTP route using the less-cli create route command. Let's see how it works.

npx @chuva.io/less-cli create route -h
Usage: less-cli create route [options]

Creates your HTTP routes.

Required options: For options marked as required, if you do not specify an option you will be asked to specify it in interactive mode instead.

Read the REST API Documentation: https://less.chuva.io/rest-apis

Options:
  -n, --name <name>          Required: The name of the API to create the route for. (E.g. "store_api")
  -p, --path <path>          Required: The HTTP route path to create. (E.g. "/orders/{order_id}")
  -l, --language <language>  Required: The programming language to use for the code. (choices: "js", "py")
  -v, --verb <verb>          Required: The HTTP verb to use for the route. (choices: "get", "post", "put", "patch", "delete")
  -h, --help                 display help for command
note
  • Less supports multiple REST APIs in the same project so we need to specify which API the route should be created for by using the name option.
  • Since Less supports more than one programming language, you should also specify the language.
  • Finally we should specify the verb and the path of the route.
npx @chuva.io/less-cli create route --name demo --language js --verb get --path "/hello"
# File created: less/apis/demo/hello/get.js

We can see that this simply created a less/apis/demo/hello/get.js file with the code for our route.

less/apis/demo/hello/get.js
exports.process = async (request, response) => {
  response.body = 'Hello, world.';
  return response;
};

This is all you need to deploy your first Less project.

Create your Less account​

Let's create our account and deploy.

Sign up​

Less works with the CLI as the primary interface. Creating an account is no different.

Use the Less CLI to create your Less account. You'll be prompted to provide your name, email, and password followed by your email verification code.

npx @chuva.io/less-cli register
Create your Less account
npx @chuva.io/less-cli register
? Enter your name: Amilcar Cabral
? Enter your email: amilcar.cabral@chuva.io
? Enter your password: *************
? Enter the verification code sent to your email: 0000

Sign in​

Use the CLI to sign in.

After creating and verifying your account you should sign in in order to deploy your first project.

npx @chuva.io/less-cli login
# ? Enter your email: youremail@gmail.com
# ? Enter your password: *********
# [less-cli] Login successful! Your LESS_TOKEN has been exported to your environment.

Now that you have logged in, let's create our route and deploy.

Deploy​

In order to deploy your Less project simply cd into a directory with a /less folder and run the Less CLI deploy command.

npx @chuva.io/less-cli deploy getting-started-with-less
[less-cli] Building... ⚙️
[less-cli] Build completed ✅
[less-cli] Deploying... 🚀
[less-cli] Deploy completed ✅
[less-cli] 🇨🇻
[less-cli] Resources
[less-cli]   - API URLs
[less-cli]     - demo: https://getting-started-with-less-my-demo-api.api.eu-0.f86h...2725.less.chuva.cv

In your deployment output you will find your https-secure API URL. Use curl or your favorite client to see it working.

curl https://YOUR_LESS_API.less.chuva.cv/hello
# Hello, world.%

Does it get any easier than that?

Learn more about building REST APIs in Less

Check out our REST API documentation to learn how to add more features to your API or let the CLI guide you (less-cli create route -h).

Learn how to add other Less features to your existing projects

Adding other Less features is just as easy. Learn how to add Web Sockets, Topics/Subscribers (Pub/Sub), CRON Jobs, Key-Value Stores, File Storage, and more to your projects using Less.