Serve

The serve() API handler is used to serve your application's functions via HTTP. This handler enables Inngest to remotely and securely read your functions' configuration and invoke your function code. This enables you to host your function code on any platform.

import { serve } from "inngest/next"; // or your preferred framework
import { inngest } from './client';
import { sendSignupEmail, summarizeText, importProductImages } from './functions';

serve(inngest, [
  sendSignupEmail,
  summarizeText,
  importProductImages,
])

serve handlers are imported from convenient framework-specific packages like "inngest/next", "inngest/express", or "inngest/lambda". Click here for a full list of officially supported frameworks. For any framework that is not support, you can create a custom handler.

serve(client, functions[], options)

  • Name
    client
    Type
    Inngest client
    Required
    required
    Description

    An Inngest client (reference)

  • Name
    functions
    Type
    InngestFunctions[]
    Required
    required
    Description

    An array of Inngest functions defined using inngest.createFunction() (reference)

  • Name
    options
    Type
    object
    Required
    optional
    Description

    Options for configuring how to wait for the event.

    Properties
    • Name
      signingKey
      Type
      string
      Required
      required
      Description

      The Inngest Signing Key for your selected environment. We recommend setting the INNGEST_SIGNING_KEY environment variable instead of passing the signingKey option. You can find this in the Inngest dashboard.

    • Name
      serveHost
      Type
      string
      Required
      optional
      Description

      The domain host of your application, including protocol, e.g. https://myapp.com. The SDK attempts to infer this via HTTP headers at runtime, but this may be required when using platforms like AWS Lambda or when using a reverse proxy.

    • Name
      servePath
      Type
      string
      Required
      optional
      Description

      The path where your serve handler is hosted. The SDK attempts to infer this via HTTP headers at runtime. We recommend /api/inngest.

    • Name
      streaming
      Type
      "allow" | "force" | false
      Required
      optional
      Description

      Enables streaming responses back to Inngest which can enable maximum serverless function timeouts. See reference for more information on the configuration.

    • Name
      logLevel
      Type
      "fatal" | "error" | "warn" | "info" | "debug" | "silent"
      Required
      optional
      Description

      The minimum level to log from the Inngest serve endpoint. Defaults to "info".

    • Name
      inngestRegisterUrl
      Type
      string
      Required
      optional
      Description

      The URL used to register functions with Inngest. This can be useful in testing environments when using the Inngest Dev Server. Defaults to: "https://api.inngest.com/fn/register"

    • Name
      fetch
      Type
      Fetch API compatible interface
      Required
      optional
      Description

      Override the default fetch implementation. Defaults to the runtime's native Fetch API.

    • Name
      landingPage
      Type
      boolean
      Required
      optional
      Description

      Force a landing page to be rendered by the serve handler to help debug the setup of your application. This is disabled by default in production (NODE_ENV !== "production").

We always recommend setting the INNGEST_SIGNING_KEY over using the signingKey option. As with any secret, it's not a good practice to hard-code the signing key in your codebase.

How the serve API handler works

The API works by exposing a single endpoint at /api/inngest which handles different actions utilizing HTTP request methods:

  • GET: Return function metadata and render a debug page in in development only. See landingPage.
  • POST: Invoke functions with the request body as incoming function state.
  • PUT: Trigger the SDK to register all functions with Inngest using the signing key.

Custom frameworks

If the framework that your application uses is not included in our list of first-party supported frameworks, you can create a custom serve handler.

To create your own handler, check out the example handler in our SDK's open source repo to understand how it works.