AponiaJS vs NestJS

NestJS is the reference point for this project, so the honest comparison is mostly a list of what NestJS has and AponiaJS does not.

At a glance

The code looks familiar

import { Body, Controller, Get, Injectable, Module, Param, Post } from "@aponiajs/common";
import { AponiaFactory } from "@aponiajs/platform-elysia";

@Injectable()
class UserService {
  findOne(id: string) {
    return { id };
  }
}

@Controller("users")
class UserController {
  constructor(private readonly users: UserService) {}

  @Get(":id")
  findOne(@Param("id") id: string) {
    return this.users.findOne(id);
  }
}

@Module({ controllers: [UserController], providers: [UserService] })
class AppModule {}

const app = await AponiaFactory.create(AppModule);
await app.listen(3000);

Anyone who has written NestJS can read that. The differences start one layer down.

@Injectable() carries less meaning

In AponiaJS the decorator exists so TypeScript emits constructor parameter types for the container. It does not attach scope metadata, because there are no scopes — every provider is a singleton constructed once at startup. See providers.

Validation is a schema, not a pipe

There is no ValidationPipe, no class-validator, and no class-transformer. A schema goes on the route decorator and a rejected request is answered before the handler runs:

const createUser = { body: z.object({ name: z.string().min(2) }) };

@Post("/", createUser)
create(@Body() body: z.infer<(typeof createUser)["body"]>) {
  return body;
}

Any Standard Schema validator works — Zod, ArkType, Valibot — alongside TypeBox and Elysia's t. Details in validation.

There is no request pipeline to hook into

This is the largest gap. NestJS gives you four extension points around a handler; AponiaJS gives you none of them yet. Cross-cutting behaviour is written as Elysia hooks instead, through native access or a plugin module. That works, but it is Elysia's model, not Nest's, and it does not participate in the module graph.

Errors are Problem Details

httpErrors.notFound("...") produces an RFC 9457 body with type, title, status, and detail. NestJS produces its own shape from HttpException. See errors.

Which one to pick