The Complete Production SOP: How to Deploy and Run Nuxt 3 Nitro Server Engine & API Route Handlers in Autonomous AI Agents

---
name: "nuxt-3-server-routes-nitro"
description: "Build blazing-fast serverless API routes, webhooks, and middleware using Nitro in Nuxt 3."
metadata:
  author: "Nuxt"
  version: "1.0.0"
  runtime_compatibility:
    - "codex"
    - "claude-code"
    - "cursor"
    - "windsurf"
triggers:
  - "write nuxt 3 server api route"
  - "cachedEventHandler nuxt nitro"
  - "readBody defineEventHandler"
permissions:
  fs_read: true
  fs_write: "workspace"
  shell_exec: false
  net_access: false
---

# Nuxt 3 Nitro Server Engine & API Route Handlers

Develops server routes with Nuxt 3 Nitro: authoring server/api/*.ts handlers using defineEventHandler, parsing query and body (getQuery, readValidatedBody), setting cookies, caching handlers with cachedEventHandler, and storage layers.

import { z } from 'zod';

const userSchema = z.object({
  email: z.string().email(),
  name: z.string().min(2)
});

export default defineEventHandler(async (event) => {
  const body = await readValidatedBody(event, (data) => userSchema.safeParse(data));

  if (!body.success) {
    throw createError({
      statusCode: 422,
      statusMessage: 'Unprocessable Entity',
      data: body.error.flatten()
    });
  }

  return { success: true, user: body.data };
});

claude "write nuxt 3 server api route to fetch product metrics with cachedEventHandler for 60 seconds at server/api/products/metrics.get.ts"

export default cachedEventHandler(async (event) => {
  // Nuxt Nitro automatically caches this response based on swr configuration
  return {
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
    totalSales: 12450,
    activeUsers: 342
  };
}, {
  maxAge: 60,
  name: 'product-metrics',
  getKey: (event) => 'global-metrics'
});