Req and res are streams in and out

server.js

// https://nodejs.org/api/stream.html#api-for-stream-consumers

const http = require('http');

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  // `req` is an http.IncomingMessage, which is a readable stream.
  // `res` is an http.ServerResponse, which is a writable stream.

  let body = '';
  // Get the data as utf8 strings.
  // If an encoding is not set, Buffer objects will be received.
  req.setEncoding('utf8');

  // Readable streams emit 'data' events once a listener is added.
  req.on('data', (chunk) => {
    body += chunk;
  });

  // The 'end' event indicates that the entire body has been received.
  req.on('end', () => {
    try {
      const data = JSON.parse(body);
      // Write back something interesting to the user:
      res.write(typeof data);
      res.end();
    } catch (er) {
      // uh oh! bad json!
      res.statusCode = 400;
      return res.end(`error: ${er.message}`);
    }
  });
});

server.listen(1337);

// $ curl localhost:1337 -d "{}"
// object
// $ curl localhost:1337 -d "\"foo\""
// string
// $ curl localhost:1337 -d "not json"
// error: Unexpected token o in JSON at position 1