orpc-guide

oRPC Guide

oRPC is a type-safe RPC framework that combines end-to-end type safety with OpenAPI compliance. It supports procedures, routers, middleware, context injection, error handling, file uploads, streaming (SSE), server actions, and contract-first development across 20+ framework adapters.

Scope: This guide is specifically for the oRPC library (@orpc/* packages). It is not a general RPC/gRPC guide, not for tRPC-only projects (unless migrating to oRPC), and not for generic TypeScript API development without oRPC. For tRPC-to-oRPC migration, see references/contract-first.md.

Quick Start

Install

npm install @orpc/server@latest @orpc/client@latest

For OpenAPI support, also install:

npm install @orpc/openapi@latest

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ (20+ recommended) | Bun | Deno | Cloudflare Workers
• TypeScript project with strict mode recommended
• Supports Zod, Valibot, ArkType, and any Standard Schema library

Define Procedures and Router

import { ORPCError, os } from '@orpc/server'
import * as z from 'zod'

const PlanetSchema = z.object({
  id: z.number().int().min(1),
  name: z.string(),
  description: z.string().optional(),
})

export const listPlanet = os
  .input(z.object({
    limit: z.number().int().min(1).max(100).optional(),
    cursor: z.number().int().min(0).default(0),
  }))
  .handler(async ({ input }) => {
    return [{ id: 1, name: 'Earth' }]
  })

export const findPlanet = os
  .input(PlanetSchema.pick({ id: true }))
  .handler(async ({ input }) => {
    return { id: 1, name: 'Earth' }
  })

export const createPlanet = os
  .$context<{ headers: Headers }>()
  .use(({ context, next }) => {
    const user = parseJWT(context.headers.get('authorization')?.split(' ')[1])
    if (user) return next({ context: { user } })
    throw new ORPCError('UNAUTHORIZED')
  })
  .input(PlanetSchema.omit({ id: true }))
  .handler(async ({ input, context }) => {
    return { id: 1, name: input.name }
  })

export const router = {
  planet: { list: listPlanet, find: findPlanet, create: createPlanet },
}

Create Server (Node.js)

import { createServer } from 'node:http'
import { RPCHandler } from '@orpc/server/node'
import { CORSPlugin } from '@orpc/server/plugins'
import { onError } from '@orpc/server'

const handler = new RPCHandler(router, {
  plugins: [new CORSPlugin()],
  interceptors: [onError((error) => console.error(error))],
})

const server = createServer(async (req, res) => {
  const { matched } = await handler.handle(req, res, {
    prefix: '/rpc',
    context: { headers: new Headers(req.headers as Record<string, string>) },
  })
  if (!matched) {
    res.statusCode = 404
    res.end('Not found')
  }
})

server.listen(3000)

Create Client

import type { RouterClient } from '@orpc/server'
import { createORPCClient } from '@orpc/client'
import { RPCLink } from '@orpc/client/fetch'

const link = new RPCLink({
  url: 'http://127.0.0.1:3000/rpc',
  headers: { Authorization: 'Bearer token' },
})

const client: RouterClient<typeof router> = createORPCClient(link)

// Fully typed calls
const planets = await client.planet.list({ limit: 10 })
const planet = await client.planet.find({ id: 1 })

Server-Side Client (No HTTP)

Call procedures directly without HTTP overhead — essential for SSR in Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, etc.

import { call, createRouterClient } from '@orpc/server'

// Single procedure call
const result = await call(router.planet.find, { id: 1 }, { context: {} })

// Router client (multiple procedures)
const serverClient = createRouterClient(router, {
  context: async () => ({ headers: await headers() }),
})
const planets = await serverClient.planet.list({ limit: 10 })

Use .callable() for individual procedures:

const getPlanet = os
  .input(z.object({ id: z.string() }))
  .handler(async ({ input }) => ({ id: input.id }))
  .callable({ context: {} })

const result = await getPlanet({ id: '123' })

See references/api-reference.md for full server-side calling patterns.

Core Concepts

Procedure Chain

const example = os
  .use(middleware)              // Apply middleware
  .input(z.object({...}))      // Validate input (Zod/Valibot/ArkType)
  .output(z.object({...}))     // Validate output (recommended for perf)
  .handler(async ({ input, context }) => { ... })  // Required
  .callable()                  // Make callable as regular function
  .actionable()                // Server Action compatibility

Only .handler() is required. All other chain methods are optional.

Router

Routers are plain objects of procedures. They can be nested and support lazy loading:

const router = {
  ping: os.handler(async () => 'pong'),
  planet: os.lazy(() => import('./planet')),  // Code splitting
}

Apply middleware to all procedures in a router:

const router = os.use(authMiddleware).router({ ping, pong })

Middleware

const authMiddleware = os
  .$context<{ headers: Headers }>()
  .middleware(async ({ context, next }) => {
    const user = await getUser(context.headers)
    if (!user) throw new ORPCError('UNAUTHORIZED')
    return next({ context: { user } })
  })

Built-in lifecycle middlewares: onStart, onSuccess, onError, onFinish.

Context

Two types: Initial Context (provided at handler creation) and Execution Context (injected by middleware at runtime). See references/api-reference.md.

Error Handling

// Normal approach
throw new ORPCError('NOT_FOUND', { message: 'Planet not found' })

// Type-safe approach
const base = os.errors({
  NOT_FOUND: { message: 'Not found' },
  RATE_LIMITED: { data: z.object({ retryAfter: z.number() }) },
})

Warning: ORPCError.data is sent to the client. Never include sensitive information.

Event Iterator (SSE/Streaming)

const streaming = os
  .output(eventIterator(z.object({ message: z.string() })))
  .handler(async function* ({ input, lastEventId }) {
    while (true) {
      yield { message: 'Hello!' }
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000))
    }
  })

File Upload/Download

const upload = os
  .input(z.file())
  .handler(async ({ input }) => {
    console.log(input.name)  // File name
    return { success: true }
  })

For uploads >100MB, use a dedicated upload solution or extend the body parser.

Built-in Helpers

oRPC provides built-in helpers for common server tasks:

• Cookies: getCookie, setCookie, deleteCookie from @orpc/server/helpers
• Cookie signing: sign, unsign for tamper-proof cookies
• Encryption: encrypt, decrypt for sensitive data (AES-GCM with PBKDF2)
• Rate limiting: @orpc/experimental-ratelimit with Memory, Redis, Upstash, and Cloudflare adapters
• Event publishing: @orpc/experimental-publisher for distributed pub/sub with resume support

See references/helpers.md for full API and examples.

Key Rules and Constraints

1. Handler is required - .handler() is the only required method on a procedure
2. Output schema recommended - Explicitly specify .output() for better TypeScript performance
3. Middleware deduplication - oRPC auto-deduplicates leading middleware; use context guards for manual dedup
4. Error data is public - Never put sensitive info in ORPCError.data
5. Body parser conflicts - Register framework body parsers AFTER oRPC middleware (Express, Fastify, Elysia)
6. RPCHandler vs OpenAPIHandler - RPCHandler uses proprietary protocol (for RPCLink only); OpenAPIHandler is REST/OpenAPI-compatible
7. Lazy routers - Use os.lazy(() => import('./module')) for code splitting; use standalone lazy() for faster type inference
8. SSE auto-reconnect - Standard SSE clients auto-reconnect; use lastEventId to resume streams
9. File limitations - No chunked/resumable uploads; File/Blob unsupported in AsyncIteratorObject
10. React Native - Fetch API has limitations (no File/Blob, no Event Iterator); use expo/fetch or RPC JSON Serializer workarounds

Handler Setup Pattern

All adapters follow this pattern:

import { RPCHandler } from '@orpc/server/fetch' // or /node, /fastify, etc.

const handler = new RPCHandler(router, {
  plugins: [new CORSPlugin()],
  interceptors: [onError((error) => console.error(error))],
})

// Handle request with prefix and context
const { matched, response } = await handler.handle(request, {
  prefix: '/rpc',
  context: {},
})

Client Setup Pattern

import { RPCLink } from '@orpc/client/fetch'        // HTTP
import { RPCLink } from '@orpc/client/websocket'     // WebSocket
import { RPCLink } from '@orpc/client/message-port'  // Message Port

Common Errors

Error Code	HTTP Status	When
BAD_REQUEST	400	Input validation failure
UNAUTHORIZED	401	Missing/invalid auth
FORBIDDEN	403	Insufficient permissions
NOT_FOUND	404	Resource not found
TIMEOUT	408	Request timeout
TOO_MANY_REQUESTS	429	Rate limited
INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR	500	Unhandled errors

Non-ORPCError exceptions are automatically converted to INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.

Reference Files

• API Reference - Procedures, routers, middleware, context, errors, metadata, event iterators, server actions, file handling
• Adapters - All 20+ framework adapters with setup code (Next.js, Express, Hono, Fastify, WebSocket, Electron, etc.)
• Plugins - All built-in plugins (CORS, batch, retry, compression, CSRF, validation, etc.)
• OpenAPI - OpenAPI spec generation, handler, routing, input/output structure, Scalar UI, OpenAPILink
• Integrations - TanStack Query, React SWR, Pinia Colada, Better Auth, AI SDK, Sentry, Pino, OpenTelemetry
• Advanced - Testing, serialization, TypeScript best practices, publishing clients, body parsing, playgrounds, ecosystem
• Contract-First - Contract-first development, tRPC migration guide, comparison with alternatives
• Helpers - Cookie management, signing, encryption, rate limiting, publisher with event resume
• NestJS - NestJS integration with decorators, dependency injection, contract-first