@trpc/server
v11.16.0 MITThe tRPC server library
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About @trpc/server
The @trpc/server package provides the core building blocks for creating type-safe APIs with tRPC. It addresses the challenge of ensuring consistent types between your frontend and backend code without the need for separate API definition files. By leveraging TypeScript's type inference, tRPC allows developers to define procedures (queries, mutations, subscriptions) on the server and seamlessly consume them on the client with full autocompletion and compile-time checks.
The primary philosophy behind tRPC is developer experience and type safety. It aims to eliminate the common pain points of traditional API development, such as runtime errors due to type mismatches and the overhead of maintaining OpenAPI or GraphQL schemas. This makes it particularly appealing to teams already heavily invested in TypeScript and seeking to streamline their full-stack development workflow.
Key architectural patterns include the `createTRPCRouter` function for organizing procedures and the `procedure` builder, which allows for middleware integration like authentication checks or input validation using libraries like Zod. The `createTRPCContext` function is crucial for managing request-scoped data, such as database connections or user sessions, making it available to all procedures.
@trpc/server integrates seamlessly with various backend frameworks, including Node.js environments with Express or Fastify, and is a core component for integrations with Next.js, especially within their App Router paradigm. It also complements data fetching libraries like React Query or Svelte Query on the client side, providing a unified and type-safe data fetching experience.
With a remarkably small bundle size (6.0 kB gzip) despite its extensive capabilities, @trpc/server offers high performance with minimal overhead. Its popularity is reflected in its significant weekly downloads and GitHub stars, indicating a mature and widely adopted solution within the TypeScript ecosystem. The package's focus on compile-time guarantees significantly reduces runtime errors, contributing to application stability.
While tRPC excels for TypeScript-centric applications, it introduces a learning curve for developers new to its specific patterns. Its strong reliance on TypeScript may require a more dedicated setup if a team is not fully committed to a TypeScript-first approach. For scenarios demanding extremely simple, stateless HTTP endpoints without complex type sharing, alternative solutions might offer a quicker initial setup.
When to use
- When building full-stack TypeScript applications that require seamless type inference between client and server.
- When leveraging Next.js App Router or Pages Router for integrated backend logic.
- When defining API procedures like queries and mutations with methods such as `query` and `mutation`.
- When implementing input validation and authorization using middleware with `procedure.input().output()`.
- When managing shared context across requests, using `createTRPCContext` for database connections or user authentication.
- When aiming to reduce boilerplate and eliminate the need for manual API schema definitions.
When NOT to use
- If your API only consists of simple, stateless key-value retrieval and doesn't benefit from type sharing.
- If your project is primarily JavaScript and lacks comprehensive TypeScript integration, as tRPC's core value is type safety.
- When you need a completely decoupled API definition that can be consumed by multiple, disparate frontend technologies without a shared type system.
- If your backend utilizes a strongly-typed API schema language like GraphQL, and you wish to maintain that separate definition layer.
- For projects that require extremely minimal server-side logic and a highly specialized, ultra-lightweight HTTP routing library.