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res.render()

Render another command's source code as the HTTP response. Ideal for separating API logic from HTML/JSON templates — keep your handler lean, your templates dumb.

res.render("dashboard.html", {
  data: {
    stats: statsData,
    title: "My Dashboard"
  }
})

Execution ends as soon as the rendered content is sent.

Basic usage

// Render by exact command name
res.render("profile.html")

// Pass template data
res.render("api-response.json", {
  data: { ok: true, result: computed }
})

// Override content type
res.render("export", {
  contentType: "text/csv",
  data: { rows: csvRows }
})

If the command name is not found, res returns 404 JSON:

{ "error": "Command not found", "message": "Command \"...\" not found" }

Automatic content type

res.render() sets Content-Type from the command name extension, unless you pass options.contentType.

Extension Content-Type
.html, .htm text/html
.css text/css
.js, .mjs application/javascript
.json, .jsonld application/json
.xml application/xml
.csv text/csv
.yaml, .yml application/x-yaml
.md, .markdown text/markdown
.svg image/svg+xml
.ts, .tsx, .jsx, .vue, … Matching script types
(no extension) text/plain 
res.render("page.html")      // text/html
res.render("data.json")      // application/json
res.render("styles.css")     // text/css
res.render("readme")         // text/plain

Data passing

Pass custom fields via options.data. They are merged into the EJS template context alongside globals.

// URL: /webapp/{bot_id}/showProfile?section=settings

res.render("profile-template.html", {
  data: {
    profile: userProfile,
    section: params.section || "overview"
  }
})

Inside profile-template.html:

<h1>Section: <%= section %></h1>
<p>Ref from URL: <%= params.ref %></p>

Available in rendered templates

Source Variables
Platform bot, user, chat, owner, params, request, update_type
options.data Any keys you pass (e.g. profile, stats)
Parent command Full TBL sandbox — Api, Bot, db, HTTP, modules, etc. run before render; the template only sees template context

Note

user is available in templates only when the parent command runs in a user webhook context.

EJS in rendered commands

For .html and .text commands, if the command code contains <%, it is EJS-rendered with options.data before sending.

HTML commands also receive platform HTML injection (<base>, meta tag, attribution).

Try it — copy-paste examples

Separate API logic from HTML

Handler command (showDashboard):

let stats = {
  users: await db.bot.get("user_count") || 0,
  revenue: await db.bot.get("revenue") || 0
}
res.render("dashboard.html", { data: { stats } })

Template command (dashboard.html):

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
  <h1>Dashboard</h1>
  <p>Users: <%= stats.users %></p>
  <p>Revenue: <%= stats.revenue %></p>
</body>
</html>

JSON via template command

res.render("user-payload.json", {
  data: {
    id: user.id,
    name: user.first_name,
    premium: user.premium || false
  }
})

user-payload.json command:

{
  "ok": true,
  "user": {
    "id": <%= id %>,
    "name": "<%= name %>",
    "premium": <%= premium %>
  }
}

JSON API without a template file

For simple APIs, res.json() is often enough:

res.status(200)
   .set("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*")
   .json({ status: "success", data: userData })

See also