hono-open-api-starter (w3cj)

A type-safe, fully documented JSON API starter built on Hono and OpenAPI

hono-open-api-starter (w3cj)Check hono-open-api-starter (w3cj)

Best for: Developers who want a type-safe, self-documenting JSON API backend as a foundation for any product, with OpenAPI docs generated automatically.
Skip if: You want a UI or dashboard included - this is a pure backend API starter with no frontend.

A free, open-source backend API starter for building fully type-safe JSON APIs with Hono, using Zod for schema validation and OpenAPI with Scalar for interactive documentation. It includes SQLite via Drizzle ORM as a single source of truth for the database schema, structured logging with Pino, a Vitest testing setup, and example task-management CRUD endpoints as a reference.

Pros

Well-established with 1,000+ GitHub stars and active community
End-to-end type safety with Zod schemas single-sourced into OpenAPI docs
Interactive API documentation via Scalar out of the box
Includes a real testing setup (Vitest) and example CRUD endpoints

Cons

Backend/API only - no frontend, dashboard, auth, or payments included
SQLite by default, so production Postgres/MySQL setup requires extra work
Doesn't map cleanly to a single site category - it's infrastructure, not a product template