Middleware

Mastra servers can execute custom middleware functions before or after an API route handler is invoked. This is useful for things like authentication, logging, injecting request-specific context or adding CORS headers.

A middleware receives the Hono Context (c) and a next function. If it returns a Response the request is short-circuited. Calling next() continues processing the next middleware or route handler.


import { Mastra } from '@mastra/core';
 
export const mastra = new Mastra({
  server: {
    middleware: [
      {
        handler: async (c, next) => {
          // Example: Add authentication check
          const authHeader = c.req.header('Authorization');
          if (!authHeader) {
            return new Response('Unauthorized', { status: 401 });
          }
 
          await next();
        },
        path: '/api/*',
      },
      // Add a global request logger
      async (c, next) => {
        console.log(`${c.req.method} ${c.req.url}`);
        await next();
      },
    ],
  },
});

To attach middleware to a single route pass the middleware option to registerApiRoute:


registerApiRoute('/my-custom-route', {
  method: 'GET',
  middleware: [
    async (c, next) => {
      console.log(`${c.req.method} ${c.req.url}`);
      await next();
    },
  ],
  handler: async (c) => {
    const mastra = c.get('mastra');
    return c.json({ message: 'Hello, world!' });
  },
});

Common examples

Authentication


{
  handler: async (c, next) => {
    const authHeader = c.req.header('Authorization');
    if (!authHeader || !authHeader.startsWith('Bearer ')) {
      return new Response('Unauthorized', { status: 401 });
    }
 
    // Validate token here
    await next();
  },
  path: '/api/*',
}

CORS support


{
  handler: async (c, next) => {
    c.header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', '*');
    c.header(
      'Access-Control-Allow-Methods',
      'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS',
    );
    c.header(
      'Access-Control-Allow-Headers',
      'Content-Type, Authorization',
    );
 
    if (c.req.method === 'OPTIONS') {
      return new Response(null, { status: 204 });
    }
 
    await next();
  },
}

Request logging


{
  handler: async (c, next) => {
    const start = Date.now();
    await next();
    const duration = Date.now() - start;
    console.log(`${c.req.method} ${c.req.url} - ${duration}ms`);
  },
}

Special Mastra headers

When integrating with Mastra Cloud or custom clients the following headers can be inspected by middleware to tailor behaviour:


{
  handler: async (c, next) => {
    const isFromMastraCloud = c.req.header('x-mastra-cloud') === 'true';
    const clientType = c.req.header('x-mastra-client-type');
    const isDevPlayground =
      c.req.header('x-mastra-dev-playground') === 'true';
 
    if (isFromMastraCloud) {
      // Special handling
    }
    await next();
  },
}

x-mastra-cloud: request originates from Mastra Cloud
x-mastra-client-type: identifies the client SDK, e.g. js or python
x-mastra-dev-playground: request triggered from a local playground