Quick start

This guide will walk you through creating your first Hyperterse API in under 5 minutes. By the end, you’ll have a working REST endpoint that queries your database.

This tutorial assumes you have installed Hyperterse and have access to a PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Redis database.

Create your first API

1. Initialize a new configuration

   hyperterse init -o config.terse

2. Define your database adapter(s)

   config.terse

   name: my-api
   
   adapters:
     my_database:
       connector: postgres
       connection_string: 'postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/mydb'

3. Define your query

   config.terse

   name: my-api
   
   adapters:
     my_database:
       connector: postgres
       connection_string: 'postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/mydb'
     queries:
       get-users:
         use: my_database
         description: 'Retrieve all users'
         statement: |
           SELECT id, name, email, created_at
           FROM users
           ORDER BY created_at DESC
           LIMIT 100

4. Start the server

   hyperterse dev -f config.terse

5. Your query is now available as a REST endpoint. Test it with curl:

   curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/query/get-users \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json"

Accepting inputs

Queries can also accept input parameters. These can be substituted in the query statement to create dynamic queries.

config.terse

name: my-api

adapters:
  my_database:
    connector: postgres
    connection_string: 'postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/mydb'
queries:
  get-users:
    use: my_database
    description: 'Retrieve all users'
    statement: |
      SELECT id, name, email, created_at
      FROM users
      ORDER BY created_at DESC
      LIMIT 100
  get-user-by-email:
    use: my_database
    description: 'Find a user by their email address'
    statement: |
      SELECT id, name, email, created_at
      FROM users
      WHERE email = {{ inputs.email }}
    inputs:
      email:
        type: string
        description: 'The email address to search for'

Now call it with an input:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/query/get-user-by-email \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email": "alice@example.com"}'

Explore built-in endpoints

Hyperterse automatically generates documentation and tooling. Try opening http://localhost:8080/docs in your browser to see the auto-generated OpenAPI specification.

Endpoint	Description
POST /query/{name}	Execute a query
GET /docs	OpenAPI 3.0 specification
GET /llms.txt	AI-friendly documentation
POST /mcp	MCP JSON-RPC 2.0 endpoint