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📖 Guide Documents🚀 Tutorial2. Quick Start (5 min)

Quick Start (5 minutes)

The fastest way to a running Nestia project is to clone the starter, install, and run. We will explore the code on the next page.

Prerequisites: Node.js 20+, a package manager (npm / pnpm / yarn / bun), and Go 1.26+ for the first build (Nestia compiles a small build-time helper once, then caches it; you pay this ~30-second cost once per machine). No Go installed? Grab it from go.dev/dl , or skip ahead to the in-browser Playground  — no local setup needed there.

1. Clone the starter

Terminal
npx nestia start my-app
cd my-app

The nestia start command clones nestia-start — a tiny NestJS project preconfigured with @nestia/core, @nestia/sdk, and a working build pipeline. It also runs install, build, and the test suite, so when the command returns you already know everything works.

Already have a NestJS project? Skip ahead to Setup for the install steps on an existing repo. Come back here after you have ttsc building cleanly.

2. Start the dev server

Terminal
npm run start:dev

The server listens on http://localhost:37001  by default.

3. Call an endpoint

In a second terminal:

Terminal
curl http://localhost:37001/health

You should see "OK". That is a real, type-checked NestJS controller — wired with Nestia’s @TypedRoute.Get() instead of NestJS’s @Get().

What just happened

You ran a NestJS server where:

  • The controller uses @TypedRoute.Get() — same shape as @Get(), but the response is type-checked and serialized 200× faster.
  • The build runs through ttsc — a Go-based TypeScript compiler that applies Nestia’s transformer at compile time. (tsc cannot apply the transform; that is why the starter uses ttsc.)
  • A client SDK is already generated under src/api/ from those controllers. We will use it in Chapter 6.

Troubleshooting

go: command not found or a Go diagnostic on first build. ttsc builds the Nestia transformer from Go source on demand. Install Go 1.26+ from go.dev/dl , then rerun the build.

Anything else. Most install-time errors come from running nest build instead of ttsc. See Setup → Troubleshooting for the full list.

Next

Continue to Your First Endpoint to see what makes those controllers tick.

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1. Welcome3. Your First Endpoint