Deploy an Express + MongoDB REST API to Production (Mongoose, 2026)

// db.js
import mongoose from "mongoose";
 
export async function connect() {
  await mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGODB_URI);
  console.log("MongoDB connected");
}

// models/Todo.js
import mongoose from "mongoose";
 
const todoSchema = new mongoose.Schema(
  {
    title: { type: String, required: true, trim: true, maxlength: 200 },
    done: { type: Boolean, default: false },
  },
  { timestamps: true },
);
 
export const Todo = mongoose.model("Todo", todoSchema);

// server.js
import express from "express";
import helmet from "helmet";
import mongoose from "mongoose";
import { connect } from "./db.js";
import { Todo } from "./models/Todo.js";
 
const app = express();
app.use(helmet());
app.use(express.json({ limit: "100kb" }));
 
app.get("/health", (_, res) => res.json({ ok: mongoose.connection.readyState === 1 }));
 
app.get("/todos", async (_, res) => res.json(await Todo.find().sort({ createdAt: -1 }).limit(100)));
 
app.post("/todos", async (req, res) => {
  const todo = await Todo.create({ title: req.body.title });
  res.status(201).json(todo);
});
 
// Central error handler: validation errors → 400, everything else → 500.
app.use((err, _req, res, _next) => {
  if (err instanceof mongoose.Error.ValidationError) return res.status(400).json({ error: err.message });
  console.error(err);
  res.status(500).json({ error: "Internal error" });
});
 
await connect();
const server = app.listen(process.env.PORT || 3000);
 
// Finish in-flight requests and close the DB connection when the platform stops the old release.
process.on("SIGTERM", () => server.close(() => mongoose.disconnect().then(() => process.exit(0))));

{
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": { "start": "node server.js" },
  "dependencies": { "express": "^5", "helmet": "^8", "mongoose": "^8" }
}

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