How do you apply middleware to specific routes or exclude certain routes in NestJS?

Q: How do you apply middleware to specific routes or exclude certain routes in NestJS?

export class AppModule implements NestModule { configure(consumer: MiddlewareConsumer) { consumer .apply(AuthMiddleware) .exclude( { path: 'auth/login', method: RequestMethod.POST }, { path: 'auth/register', method: RequestMethod.POST }, 'health', // shorthand — all methods ) .forRoutes(UsersController); // apply to entire controller consumer .apply(LoggerMiddleware, CompressionMiddleware) // chained — left to right .forRoutes({ path: 'admin/*', method: RequestMethod.ALL }); } } Controller class — applies to all routes of that controller. Path string — e.g. 'users' or 'admin/*' with wildcard support. Route object — { path: 'users', method: RequestMethod.GET } for method-specific binding. Multiple middleware in apply(Mw1, Mw2) execute in order from left to right. exclude() path matching is based on path-to-regexp — patterns like 'auth/(.*) are supported.

Difficulty: 5/10

middleware, route scoping, NestJS modules

MiddlewareConsumer provides a fluent API. Use forRoutes() to target specific controllers, paths, or route objects with method constraints. Use exclude() to skip specific paths. Multiple middleware classes can be chained in a single apply() call and execute left to right.

MiddlewareConsumer fluent API

forRoutes() accepts three forms:

1
Controller class — applies to all routes of that controller.
2
Path string — e.g. 'users' or 'admin/*' with wildcard support.
3
Route object — { path: 'users', method: RequestMethod.GET } for method-specific binding.
4
Multiple middleware in apply(Mw1, Mw2) execute in order from left to right.
5
exclude() path matching is based on path-to-regexp — patterns like 'auth/(.*) are supported.

Scenario Questions

0-2 years experience

1We have a controller with /public and /admin endpoints. How would you attach a logging middleware only to the /admin route?
2If you register a middleware globally but need to skip it for the /health endpoint, what steps do you take in NestJS?
3Show how you would register a middleware for all routes in a specific feature module using the configure method.

Follow-up Questions

What happens if you forget to call next() inside your middleware?
How does NestJS decide the execution order when multiple middlewares are applied?
When would you prefer exclude().forRoutes() over applying middleware only to selected routes?