# Advanced Configuration
This guide covers programmatic customization, custom routes, and middleware for advanced Hayhooks usage.
For basic configuration, see [Configuration](../getting-started/configuration.md). For deployment and performance tuning, see [Deployment Guidelines](../deployment/deployment_guidelines.md).
## Custom Routes and Middleware
### When to add custom routes
- Add specialized endpoints for application-specific logic
- Provide admin/operations endpoints (restart, status, maintenance tasks)
- Expose health checks, metrics, and webhook handlers for integrations
- Implement authentication/authorization flows
- Offer file management or other utility endpoints
### When to add middleware
- Apply cross-cutting concerns (logging/tracing, correlation IDs)
- Enforce security controls (authn/z, rate limiting, quotas)
- Control headers, CORS, compression, and caching
- Normalize inputs/outputs and error handling consistently
## Programmatic Customization
You can create a custom Hayhooks app instance to add routes or middleware:
```python
import uvicorn
from hayhooks.settings import settings
from fastapi import Request
from hayhooks import create_app
# Create the Hayhooks app
hayhooks = create_app()
# Add a custom route
@hayhooks.get("/custom")
async def custom_route():
return {"message": "Custom route"}
# Add custom middleware
@hayhooks.middleware("http")
async def custom_middleware(request: Request, call_next):
response = await call_next(request)
response.headers["X-Custom-Header"] = "value"
return response
if __name__ == "__main__":
uvicorn.run("app:hayhooks", host=settings.host, port=settings.port)
```
This allows you to build custom applications with Hayhooks as the core engine while adding your own business logic and integrations.
## Next Steps
- [Deployment Guidelines](../deployment/deployment_guidelines.md) - Performance tuning, workers, scaling, and deployment strategies
- [Code Sharing](code-sharing.md) - Reusable components across pipelines
