Support gist for http://writings.nunojob.com/2011/08/nano-minimalistic-couchdb-client-for-nodejs.html

adhoc-db-creation.js

var nano = require('nano')('http://localhost:5984');
var db_name = "test";
var db = nano.use(db_name);

function insert_doc(doc, tried) {
  db.insert(doc,
    function (error,http_headers,http_body) {
      if(error) {
        if(error.message === 'no_db_file'  && tried < 1) {
          // create database and retry
          return nano.db.create(db_name, function () {
            insert_doc(doc, tried+1);
          });
        }
        else { return console.log(error); }
      }
      console.log(http_body);
  });
}

insert_doc({nano: true}, 0);

index.js

var express = require('express')
  , nano    = require('nano')('http://localhost:5984')
  , app     = module.exports = express.createServer()
  , db_name = "test"
  , db      = nano.use(db_name);

app.get("/", function(request,response) {
  db.attachment.get("new", "logo.png").pipe(response);
});

app.listen(3333);

pipe-in.js

var nano = require('nano')('http://localhost:5984');
var request = require('request');

var db_name = "test";
var db = nano.use(db_name);

// {} for empty body as parameter is required but will be piped in
request.get("http://nodejs.org/logo.png").pipe(
  db.attachment.insert("new", "logo.png", {}, "image/png")
);

uuids.js

var nano = require('nano')('http://localhost:5984');
nano.request({db: "_uuids"}, function(_,_,uuids){ console.log(uuids); });