`ctx.respond`

Set to `false` to bypass Koa's automatic response handling and write to `ctx.res` directly.

Syntax

ctx.respond = false

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`value`	`boolean`	Yes	When set to `false`, Koa will not call `res.end()` or set any headers automatically after all middleware finishes. You take full control of the Node.js `ServerResponse`.

Returns

void — Setter; returns nothing.

Examples

import Koa from 'koa';
import { createReadStream } from 'node:fs';

const app = new Koa();

app.use(async (ctx) => {
  if (ctx.path === '/stream') {
    ctx.respond = false;
    ctx.res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
    createReadStream('./large.txt').pipe(ctx.res);
  } else {
    ctx.body = 'Hello';
  }
});

app.listen(3000);

Output

GET /stream → streams large.txt directly via Node.js res

Notes

Use `ctx.respond = false` only as a last resort when you need raw access to `ctx.res` (e.g. for low-level streaming, server-sent events, or WebSocket handshakes). Koa's response helpers (`ctx.body`, `ctx.type`, etc.) will no longer take effect.