RESTHeart

The backend framework that instantly turns MongoDB into REST, GraphQL, and WebSocket APIs — no code required.

---

What is RESTHeart?

RESTHeart is a Java backend framework that instantly exposes your MongoDB database through secure REST, GraphQL, and WebSocket APIs — no backend code required.

The framework allows direct data access through standard HTTP clients, without requiring SDKs or specialized libraries.

For example, MongoDB documents can be queried directly from a browser using standard JavaScript:

const url = encodeURI('https://demo.restheart.org/messages?filter={"from":"Bob"}&pagesize=1');

fetch(url)
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(json => console.log(JSON.stringify(json, null, 2)));

📄 Complete documentation available at https://restheart.org/docs/

---

Why RESTHeart?

RESTHeart isn’t just a MongoDB REST layer — it’s a complete backend foundation.

Capability	Description
🧩 Automatic API generation	Exposes MongoDB collections and documents via REST and GraphQL
⚙️ Plugin framework	Extend functionality with custom services, interceptors, and validators in Java or JavaScript
🔐 Security layer	Built-in authentication, authorization, role-based access control, and TLS support
💬 WebSocket support	Real-time data updates and change stream notifications
🚀 Undertow-based runtime	Non-blocking I/O with Virtual Threads (Project Loom) support
🌐 Polyglot plugins	Run JavaScript or Python plugins when using GraalVM
📈 Monitoring	Prometheus metrics, health checks, and observability endpoints
🧰 Development tools	CLI tooling, hot-reload support, Docker images, and native compilation

RESTHeart is suitable for:

• 🚧 Rapid prototyping and MVPs
• 🧠 Scalable microservices architectures
• 🧩 Enterprise backends extending MongoDB with custom logic
• ☁️ Deployments on AWS, GCP, Azure, or RESTHeart Cloud

---

Quick Start

Run MongoDB + RESTHeart in 30 seconds:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SoftInstigate/restheart/master/docker-compose.yml --output docker-compose.yml && docker compose up --pull=always --attach restheart

Verify the deployment:

curl localhost:8080/ping

RESTHeart is now running and connected to MongoDB.

---

Examples

Query documents via REST

curl 'http://localhost:8080/people?filter={"age":{"$gt":30}}'

Query documents via GraphQL

{
  people(filter: "{'age': {'$gt': 30}}", pagesize: 5) {
    _id
    name
    age
  }
}

Receive real-time updates via WebSocket

const ws = new WebSocket("wss://demo.restheart.org/ws/messages");
ws.onmessage = e => console.log("New message:", e.data);

---

Configuration

RESTHeart configuration is managed through a YAML file or the RHO environment variable for runtime overrides.

Configurable components include:

• MongoDB connection strings and client settings
• Authentication mechanisms and user management
• Authorization policies and ACL rules
• Plugin configuration and registration
• Metrics collection and logging levels

See the Configuration Guide.

---

Plugin Architecture

The plugin architecture allows extending RESTHeart with custom services, interceptors, and validators.

• Implement custom APIs in Java, JavaScript and other GraalVM suported languages
• Register plugins via configuration or programmatically at runtime
• Use the restheart-cli tool for scaffolding, testing, and hot-reload during development

---

RESTHeart Cloud

Want RESTHeart as a managed service?
RESTHeart Cloud provides:

• Managed deployment and infrastructure
• Automatic scaling and load balancing
• Centralized monitoring and logging
• API management and publishing capabilities

Suitable for production deployments or development environments.

---

Supported Databases

• ✅ MongoDB / MongoDB Atlas
• ✅ Percona Server for MongoDB
• ⚙️ FerretDB (partial)
• ⚙️ Amazon DocumentDB (partial)
• ⚙️ Azure CosmosDB (partial)

Compatibility depends on MongoDB wire protocol support.

---

Community and Support

• 📄 Documentation - Comprehensive configuration, development and deployment documents.
• 🤖 Ask Sophia — AI-powered documentation assistant
• 💬 Slack — Community discussion channel
• 🐛 GitHub Issues — Bug reports and feature requests
• 💡 Stack Overflow — Technical questions
• 📅 Book a demo — Schedule a consultation

---

Made with ❤️ by SoftInstigate