1# <img alt="chi" src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/go-chi/chi/master/_examples/chi.svg" width="220" />
2
3
4[![GoDoc Widget]][GoDoc] [![Travis Widget]][Travis]
5
6`chi` is a lightweight, idiomatic and composable router for building Go HTTP services. It's
7especially good at helping you write large REST API services that are kept maintainable as your
8project grows and changes. `chi` is built on the new `context` package introduced in Go 1.7 to
9handle signaling, cancelation and request-scoped values across a handler chain.
10
11The focus of the project has been to seek out an elegant and comfortable design for writing
12REST API servers, written during the development of the Pressly API service that powers our
13public API service, which in turn powers all of our client-side applications.
14
15The key considerations of chi's design are: project structure, maintainability, standard http
16handlers (stdlib-only), developer productivity, and deconstructing a large system into many small
17parts. The core router `github.com/go-chi/chi` is quite small (less than 1000 LOC), but we've also
18included some useful/optional subpackages: [middleware](/middleware), [render](https://github.com/go-chi/render)
19and [docgen](https://github.com/go-chi/docgen). We hope you enjoy it too!
20
21## Install
22
23`go get -u github.com/go-chi/chi`
24
25
26## Features
27
28* **Lightweight** - cloc'd in ~1000 LOC for the chi router
29* **Fast** - yes, see [benchmarks](#benchmarks)
30* **100% compatible with net/http** - use any http or middleware pkg in the ecosystem that is also compatible with `net/http`
31* **Designed for modular/composable APIs** - middlewares, inline middlewares, route groups and sub-router mounting
32* **Context control** - built on new `context` package, providing value chaining, cancellations and timeouts
33* **Robust** - in production at Pressly, CloudFlare, Heroku, 99Designs, and many others (see [discussion](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/issues/91))
34* **Doc generation** - `docgen` auto-generates routing documentation from your source to JSON or Markdown
35* **Go.mod support** - v1.x of chi (starting from v1.5.0), now has go.mod support (see [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v150-2020-11-12---now-with-gomod-support))
36* **No external dependencies** - plain ol' Go stdlib + net/http
37
38
39## Examples
40
41See [_examples/](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/blob/master/_examples/) for a variety of examples.
42
43
44**As easy as:**
45
46```go
47package main
48
49import (
50	"net/http"
51
52	"github.com/go-chi/chi"
53	"github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware"
54)
55
56func main() {
57	r := chi.NewRouter()
58	r.Use(middleware.Logger)
59	r.Get("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
60		w.Write([]byte("welcome"))
61	})
62	http.ListenAndServe(":3000", r)
63}
64```
65
66**REST Preview:**
67
68Here is a little preview of how routing looks like with chi. Also take a look at the generated routing docs
69in JSON ([routes.json](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/blob/master/_examples/rest/routes.json)) and in
70Markdown ([routes.md](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/blob/master/_examples/rest/routes.md)).
71
72I highly recommend reading the source of the [examples](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/blob/master/_examples/) listed
73above, they will show you all the features of chi and serve as a good form of documentation.
74
75```go
76import (
77  //...
78  "context"
79  "github.com/go-chi/chi"
80  "github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware"
81)
82
83func main() {
84  r := chi.NewRouter()
85
86  // A good base middleware stack
87  r.Use(middleware.RequestID)
88  r.Use(middleware.RealIP)
89  r.Use(middleware.Logger)
90  r.Use(middleware.Recoverer)
91
92  // Set a timeout value on the request context (ctx), that will signal
93  // through ctx.Done() that the request has timed out and further
94  // processing should be stopped.
95  r.Use(middleware.Timeout(60 * time.Second))
96
97  r.Get("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
98    w.Write([]byte("hi"))
99  })
100
101  // RESTy routes for "articles" resource
102  r.Route("/articles", func(r chi.Router) {
103    r.With(paginate).Get("/", listArticles)                           // GET /articles
104    r.With(paginate).Get("/{month}-{day}-{year}", listArticlesByDate) // GET /articles/01-16-2017
105
106    r.Post("/", createArticle)                                        // POST /articles
107    r.Get("/search", searchArticles)                                  // GET /articles/search
108
109    // Regexp url parameters:
110    r.Get("/{articleSlug:[a-z-]+}", getArticleBySlug)                // GET /articles/home-is-toronto
111
112    // Subrouters:
113    r.Route("/{articleID}", func(r chi.Router) {
114      r.Use(ArticleCtx)
115      r.Get("/", getArticle)                                          // GET /articles/123
116      r.Put("/", updateArticle)                                       // PUT /articles/123
117      r.Delete("/", deleteArticle)                                    // DELETE /articles/123
118    })
119  })
120
121  // Mount the admin sub-router
122  r.Mount("/admin", adminRouter())
123
124  http.ListenAndServe(":3333", r)
125}
126
127func ArticleCtx(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
128  return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
129    articleID := chi.URLParam(r, "articleID")
130    article, err := dbGetArticle(articleID)
131    if err != nil {
132      http.Error(w, http.StatusText(404), 404)
133      return
134    }
135    ctx := context.WithValue(r.Context(), "article", article)
136    next.ServeHTTP(w, r.WithContext(ctx))
137  })
138}
139
140func getArticle(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
141  ctx := r.Context()
142  article, ok := ctx.Value("article").(*Article)
143  if !ok {
144    http.Error(w, http.StatusText(422), 422)
145    return
146  }
147  w.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("title:%s", article.Title)))
148}
149
150// A completely separate router for administrator routes
151func adminRouter() http.Handler {
152  r := chi.NewRouter()
153  r.Use(AdminOnly)
154  r.Get("/", adminIndex)
155  r.Get("/accounts", adminListAccounts)
156  return r
157}
158
159func AdminOnly(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
160  return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
161    ctx := r.Context()
162    perm, ok := ctx.Value("acl.permission").(YourPermissionType)
163    if !ok || !perm.IsAdmin() {
164      http.Error(w, http.StatusText(403), 403)
165      return
166    }
167    next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
168  })
169}
170```
171
172
173## Router interface
174
175chi's router is based on a kind of [Patricia Radix trie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_tree).
176The router is fully compatible with `net/http`.
177
178Built on top of the tree is the `Router` interface:
179
180```go
181// Router consisting of the core routing methods used by chi's Mux,
182// using only the standard net/http.
183type Router interface {
184	http.Handler
185	Routes
186
187	// Use appends one or more middlewares onto the Router stack.
188	Use(middlewares ...func(http.Handler) http.Handler)
189
190	// With adds inline middlewares for an endpoint handler.
191	With(middlewares ...func(http.Handler) http.Handler) Router
192
193	// Group adds a new inline-Router along the current routing
194	// path, with a fresh middleware stack for the inline-Router.
195	Group(fn func(r Router)) Router
196
197	// Route mounts a sub-Router along a `pattern`` string.
198	Route(pattern string, fn func(r Router)) Router
199
200	// Mount attaches another http.Handler along ./pattern/*
201	Mount(pattern string, h http.Handler)
202
203	// Handle and HandleFunc adds routes for `pattern` that matches
204	// all HTTP methods.
205	Handle(pattern string, h http.Handler)
206	HandleFunc(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
207
208	// Method and MethodFunc adds routes for `pattern` that matches
209	// the `method` HTTP method.
210	Method(method, pattern string, h http.Handler)
211	MethodFunc(method, pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
212
213	// HTTP-method routing along `pattern`
214	Connect(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
215	Delete(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
216	Get(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
217	Head(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
218	Options(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
219	Patch(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
220	Post(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
221	Put(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
222	Trace(pattern string, h http.HandlerFunc)
223
224	// NotFound defines a handler to respond whenever a route could
225	// not be found.
226	NotFound(h http.HandlerFunc)
227
228	// MethodNotAllowed defines a handler to respond whenever a method is
229	// not allowed.
230	MethodNotAllowed(h http.HandlerFunc)
231}
232
233// Routes interface adds two methods for router traversal, which is also
234// used by the github.com/go-chi/docgen package to generate documentation for Routers.
235type Routes interface {
236	// Routes returns the routing tree in an easily traversable structure.
237	Routes() []Route
238
239	// Middlewares returns the list of middlewares in use by the router.
240	Middlewares() Middlewares
241
242	// Match searches the routing tree for a handler that matches
243	// the method/path - similar to routing a http request, but without
244	// executing the handler thereafter.
245	Match(rctx *Context, method, path string) bool
246}
247```
248
249Each routing method accepts a URL `pattern` and chain of `handlers`. The URL pattern
250supports named params (ie. `/users/{userID}`) and wildcards (ie. `/admin/*`). URL parameters
251can be fetched at runtime by calling `chi.URLParam(r, "userID")` for named parameters
252and `chi.URLParam(r, "*")` for a wildcard parameter.
253
254
255### Middleware handlers
256
257chi's middlewares are just stdlib net/http middleware handlers. There is nothing special
258about them, which means the router and all the tooling is designed to be compatible and
259friendly with any middleware in the community. This offers much better extensibility and reuse
260of packages and is at the heart of chi's purpose.
261
262Here is an example of a standard net/http middleware where we assign a context key `"user"`
263the value of `"123"`. This middleware sets a hypothetical user identifier on the request
264context and calls the next handler in the chain.
265
266```go
267// HTTP middleware setting a value on the request context
268func MyMiddleware(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
269  return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
270    // create new context from `r` request context, and assign key `"user"`
271    // to value of `"123"`
272    ctx := context.WithValue(r.Context(), "user", "123")
273
274    // call the next handler in the chain, passing the response writer and
275    // the updated request object with the new context value.
276    //
277    // note: context.Context values are nested, so any previously set
278    // values will be accessible as well, and the new `"user"` key
279    // will be accessible from this point forward.
280    next.ServeHTTP(w, r.WithContext(ctx))
281  })
282}
283```
284
285
286### Request handlers
287
288chi uses standard net/http request handlers. This little snippet is an example of a http.Handler
289func that reads a user identifier from the request context - hypothetically, identifying
290the user sending an authenticated request, validated+set by a previous middleware handler.
291
292```go
293// HTTP handler accessing data from the request context.
294func MyRequestHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
295  // here we read from the request context and fetch out `"user"` key set in
296  // the MyMiddleware example above.
297  user := r.Context().Value("user").(string)
298
299  // respond to the client
300  w.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("hi %s", user)))
301}
302```
303
304
305### URL parameters
306
307chi's router parses and stores URL parameters right onto the request context. Here is
308an example of how to access URL params in your net/http handlers. And of course, middlewares
309are able to access the same information.
310
311```go
312// HTTP handler accessing the url routing parameters.
313func MyRequestHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
314  // fetch the url parameter `"userID"` from the request of a matching
315  // routing pattern. An example routing pattern could be: /users/{userID}
316  userID := chi.URLParam(r, "userID")
317
318  // fetch `"key"` from the request context
319  ctx := r.Context()
320  key := ctx.Value("key").(string)
321
322  // respond to the client
323  w.Write([]byte(fmt.Sprintf("hi %v, %v", userID, key)))
324}
325```
326
327
328## Middlewares
329
330chi comes equipped with an optional `middleware` package, providing a suite of standard
331`net/http` middlewares. Please note, any middleware in the ecosystem that is also compatible
332with `net/http` can be used with chi's mux.
333
334### Core middlewares
335
336----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
337| chi/middleware Handler | description                                                             |
338| :--------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
339| [AllowContentEncoding] | Enforces a whitelist of request Content-Encoding headers                |
340| [AllowContentType]     | Explicit whitelist of accepted request Content-Types                    |
341| [BasicAuth]            | Basic HTTP authentication                                               |
342| [Compress]             | Gzip compression for clients that accept compressed responses           |
343| [ContentCharset]       | Ensure charset for Content-Type request headers                         |
344| [CleanPath]            | Clean double slashes from request path                                  |
345| [GetHead]              | Automatically route undefined HEAD requests to GET handlers             |
346| [Heartbeat]            | Monitoring endpoint to check the servers pulse                          |
347| [Logger]               | Logs the start and end of each request with the elapsed processing time |
348| [NoCache]              | Sets response headers to prevent clients from caching                   |
349| [Profiler]             | Easily attach net/http/pprof to your routers                            |
350| [RealIP]               | Sets a http.Request's RemoteAddr to either X-Forwarded-For or X-Real-IP |
351| [Recoverer]            | Gracefully absorb panics and prints the stack trace                     |
352| [RequestID]            | Injects a request ID into the context of each request                   |
353| [RedirectSlashes]      | Redirect slashes on routing paths                                       |
354| [RouteHeaders]         | Route handling for request headers                                      |
355| [SetHeader]            | Short-hand middleware to set a response header key/value                |
356| [StripSlashes]         | Strip slashes on routing paths                                          |
357| [Throttle]             | Puts a ceiling on the number of concurrent requests                     |
358| [Timeout]              | Signals to the request context when the timeout deadline is reached     |
359| [URLFormat]            | Parse extension from url and put it on request context                  |
360| [WithValue]            | Short-hand middleware to set a key/value on the request context         |
361----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
362
363[AllowContentEncoding]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#AllowContentEncoding
364[AllowContentType]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#AllowContentType
365[BasicAuth]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#BasicAuth
366[Compress]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Compress
367[ContentCharset]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#ContentCharset
368[CleanPath]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#CleanPath
369[GetHead]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#GetHead
370[GetReqID]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#GetReqID
371[Heartbeat]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Heartbeat
372[Logger]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Logger
373[NoCache]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#NoCache
374[Profiler]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Profiler
375[RealIP]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#RealIP
376[Recoverer]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Recoverer
377[RedirectSlashes]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#RedirectSlashes
378[RequestLogger]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#RequestLogger
379[RequestID]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#RequestID
380[RouteHeaders]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#RouteHeaders
381[SetHeader]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#SetHeader
382[StripSlashes]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#StripSlashes
383[Throttle]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Throttle
384[ThrottleBacklog]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#ThrottleBacklog
385[ThrottleWithOpts]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#ThrottleWithOpts
386[Timeout]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Timeout
387[URLFormat]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#URLFormat
388[WithLogEntry]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#WithLogEntry
389[WithValue]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#WithValue
390[Compressor]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#Compressor
391[DefaultLogFormatter]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#DefaultLogFormatter
392[EncoderFunc]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#EncoderFunc
393[HeaderRoute]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#HeaderRoute
394[HeaderRouter]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#HeaderRouter
395[LogEntry]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#LogEntry
396[LogFormatter]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#LogFormatter
397[LoggerInterface]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#LoggerInterface
398[ThrottleOpts]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#ThrottleOpts
399[WrapResponseWriter]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi/middleware#WrapResponseWriter
400
401### Extra middlewares & packages
402
403Please see https://github.com/go-chi for additional packages.
404
405--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
406| package                                            | description                                                 |
407|:---------------------------------------------------|:-------------------------------------------------------------
408| [cors](https://github.com/go-chi/cors)             | Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS)                        |
409| [docgen](https://github.com/go-chi/docgen)         | Print chi.Router routes at runtime                          |
410| [jwtauth](https://github.com/go-chi/jwtauth)       | JWT authentication                                          |
411| [hostrouter](https://github.com/go-chi/hostrouter) | Domain/host based request routing                           |
412| [httplog](https://github.com/go-chi/httplog)       | Small but powerful structured HTTP request logging          |
413| [httprate](https://github.com/go-chi/httprate)     | HTTP request rate limiter                                   |
414| [httptracer](https://github.com/go-chi/httptracer) | HTTP request performance tracing library                    |
415| [httpvcr](https://github.com/go-chi/httpvcr)       | Write deterministic tests for external sources              |
416| [stampede](https://github.com/go-chi/stampede)     | HTTP request coalescer                                      |
417--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
418
419
420## context?
421
422`context` is a tiny pkg that provides simple interface to signal context across call stacks
423and goroutines. It was originally written by [Sameer Ajmani](https://github.com/Sajmani)
424and is available in stdlib since go1.7.
425
426Learn more at https://blog.golang.org/context
427
428and..
429* Docs: https://golang.org/pkg/context
430* Source: https://github.com/golang/go/tree/master/src/context
431
432
433## Benchmarks
434
435The benchmark suite: https://github.com/pkieltyka/go-http-routing-benchmark
436
437Results as of Nov 29, 2020 with Go 1.15.5 on Linux AMD 3950x
438
439```shell
440BenchmarkChi_Param          	3075895	        384 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
441BenchmarkChi_Param5         	2116603	        566 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
442BenchmarkChi_Param20        	 964117	       1227 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
443BenchmarkChi_ParamWrite     	2863413	        420 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
444BenchmarkChi_GithubStatic   	3045488	        395 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
445BenchmarkChi_GithubParam    	2204115	        540 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
446BenchmarkChi_GithubAll      	  10000	     113811 ns/op	    81203 B/op    406 allocs/op
447BenchmarkChi_GPlusStatic    	3337485	        359 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
448BenchmarkChi_GPlusParam     	2825853	        423 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
449BenchmarkChi_GPlus2Params   	2471697	        483 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
450BenchmarkChi_GPlusAll       	 194220	       5950 ns/op	     5200 B/op     26 allocs/op
451BenchmarkChi_ParseStatic    	3365324	        356 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
452BenchmarkChi_ParseParam     	2976614	        404 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
453BenchmarkChi_Parse2Params   	2638084	        439 ns/op	      400 B/op      2 allocs/op
454BenchmarkChi_ParseAll       	 109567	      11295 ns/op	    10400 B/op     52 allocs/op
455BenchmarkChi_StaticAll      	  16846	      71308 ns/op	    62802 B/op    314 allocs/op
456```
457
458Comparison with other routers: https://gist.github.com/pkieltyka/123032f12052520aaccab752bd3e78cc
459
460NOTE: the allocs in the benchmark above are from the calls to http.Request's
461`WithContext(context.Context)` method that clones the http.Request, sets the `Context()`
462on the duplicated (alloc'd) request and returns it the new request object. This is just
463how setting context on a request in Go works.
464
465
466## Go module support & note on chi's versioning
467
468* Go.mod support means we reset our versioning starting from v1.5 (see [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/go-chi/chi/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v150-2020-11-12---now-with-gomod-support))
469* All older tags are preserved, are backwards-compatible and will "just work" as they
470* Brand new systems can run `go get -u github.com/go-chi/chi` as normal, or `go get -u github.com/go-chi/chi@latest`
471to install chi, which will install v1.x+ built with go.mod support, starting from v1.5.0.
472* For existing projects who want to upgrade to the latest go.mod version, run: `go get -u github.com/go-chi/chi@v1.5.0`,
473which will get you on the go.mod version line (as Go's mod cache may still remember v4.x).
474* Any breaking changes will bump a "minor" release and backwards-compatible improvements/fixes will bump a "tiny" release.
475
476
477## Credits
478
479* Carl Jackson for https://github.com/zenazn/goji
480  * Parts of chi's thinking comes from goji, and chi's middleware package
481    sources from goji.
482* Armon Dadgar for https://github.com/armon/go-radix
483* Contributions: [@VojtechVitek](https://github.com/VojtechVitek)
484
485We'll be more than happy to see [your contributions](./CONTRIBUTING.md)!
486
487
488## Beyond REST
489
490chi is just a http router that lets you decompose request handling into many smaller layers.
491Many companies use chi to write REST services for their public APIs. But, REST is just a convention
492for managing state via HTTP, and there's a lot of other pieces required to write a complete client-server
493system or network of microservices.
494
495Looking beyond REST, I also recommend some newer works in the field:
496* [webrpc](https://github.com/webrpc/webrpc) - Web-focused RPC client+server framework with code-gen
497* [gRPC](https://github.com/grpc/grpc-go) - Google's RPC framework via protobufs
498* [graphql](https://github.com/99designs/gqlgen) - Declarative query language
499* [NATS](https://nats.io) - lightweight pub-sub
500
501
502## License
503
504Copyright (c) 2015-present [Peter Kieltyka](https://github.com/pkieltyka)
505
506Licensed under [MIT License](./LICENSE)
507
508[GoDoc]: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/go-chi/chi?tab=versions
509[GoDoc Widget]: https://godoc.org/github.com/go-chi/chi?status.svg
510[Travis]: https://travis-ci.org/go-chi/chi
511[Travis Widget]: https://travis-ci.org/go-chi/chi.svg?branch=master
512