# Server Engine

Nuxt 3 is powered by a new server engine, code-named "Nitro".

This engine has many benefits:
::list
- Cross-platform support for Node.js, Browsers, service-workers and more
- Serverless support out-of-the-box
- API routes support
- Automatic code-splitting and async-loaded chunks
- Hybrid mode for static + serverless sites
- Development server with hot module reloading
::

## API Layer

Server [API endpoints](/docs/directory-structure/server#api-routes) and [Middleware](/docs/directory-structure/server#server-middleware) are added by Nitro that internally uses [h3](https://github.com/unjs/h3).

There are a number of key features, including:

* Handlers can directly return objects/arrays for an automatically-handled JSON response
* Handlers can return promises, which will be awaited (`res.end()` and `next()` are also supported)
* Helper functions for body parsing, cookie handling, redirects, headers and more

Check out [the h3 docs](https://github.com/unjs/h3) for more information.


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Learn more about the API layer in the [`server/`](/docs/directory-structure/server) directory.
::

## Direct API calls

Nitro allows 'direct' calling of routes via the globally-available `$fetch` helper. This will make an API call to the server if run on the browser, but will simply call the relevant function if run on the server, **saving an additional API call**.

`$fetch` API is using [ohmyfetch](https://github.com/unjs/ohmyfetch), with key features including:

* Automatic parsing of JSON responses (with access to raw response if needed)
* Request body and params are automatically handled, with correct `Content-Type` headers being added

For more information on `$fetch` features, check out [ohmyfetch](https://github.com/unjs/ohmyfetch).

## Standalone Server

Nitro produces a standalone server dist that is independent of `node_modules`.

The server in Nuxt 2 is not standalone, but requires part of nuxt core to be involved running `nuxt start` (with the [`nuxt-start`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/nuxt-start) or [`nuxt`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/nuxt) distributions) or custom programmatic usage, which was fragile and prone to breakage and not suitable for serverless and service-worker environments.

This dist is generated when running `nuxt build` into a [`.output`](/docs/directory-structure/output) directory.

The output is combined with both runtime code to run your Nuxt server in any environment (including experimental browser Service Workers!) and serve you static files, making it a true hybrid framework for the Jamstack. In addition, a native storage layer is implemented, supporting multi source, drivers and local assets.

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Checkout the Nitro engine on GitHub: [framework/packages/nitro](https://github.com/nuxt/framework/tree/main/packages/nitro)
::