Why add a health check route?
GET /health returning 200 OK is useful for uptime monitors, load balancers, and CI checks. It confirms the server is alive and the port is open. Add it on day one.
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More FAQs in How to Create an Express Server From Scratch
Run npm init -y, install express and nodemon, create server.js with app.get for health, add express.json(), cors if cross-origin, dotenv for env vars, and an error handler. Run with npm run dev and visit /health to confirm.
To read JSON request bodies. Without it, req.body is undefined for JSON POST requests. Add it before your routes.
It restarts the server automatically when files change. Without it, you would have to stop and start the server manually every time you save a file. Add it as a dev dependency and use it in your dev script.
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