A minimal, zero-dependency web framework for Go.

---

Marten is a lightweight HTTP framework built entirely on Go's standard library. No external dependencies. No magic. Just clean, predictable code that gets out of your way.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Features
• Routing
• Middleware
• Context API
• Configuration
• Benchmarks
• Examples
• Documentation
• Contributing
• License

Installation

go get github.com/gomarten/marten

Quick Start

package main

import (
    "github.com/gomarten/marten"
    "github.com/gomarten/marten/middleware"
)

func main() {
    app := marten.New()
    
    app.Use(middleware.Logger)
    app.Use(middleware.Recover)

    app.GET("/", func(c *marten.Ctx) error {
        return c.OK(marten.M{"message": "Hello, World!"})
    })

    app.GET("/users/:id", func(c *marten.Ctx) error {
        id := c.ParamInt("id")
        return c.OK(marten.M{"id": id})
    })

    app.Run(":8080")
}

Features

Feature	Description
Zero Dependencies	Built entirely on Go's standard library
Fast Routing	Radix tree router with path parameters and wildcards
Middleware	Chainable middleware with 14 built-in options
Context Pooling	Efficient memory reuse for high throughput
Response Helpers	OK(), Created(), BadRequest(), NotFound(), and more
Typed Parameters	ParamInt(), QueryInt(), QueryBool()
Graceful Shutdown	Built-in support via RunGraceful()

Routing

// Path parameters
app.GET("/users/:id", handler)
app.GET("/files/*filepath", handler)

// Route groups
api := app.Group("/api/v1")
api.GET("/users", listUsers)
api.POST("/users", createUser)

// All HTTP methods
app.GET("/resource", handler)
app.POST("/resource", handler)
app.PUT("/resource", handler)
app.DELETE("/resource", handler)
app.PATCH("/resource", handler)
app.HEAD("/resource", handler)
app.OPTIONS("/resource", handler)

Middleware

Built-in middleware:

import "github.com/gomarten/marten/middleware"

app.Use(middleware.Logger)           // Request logging
app.Use(middleware.Recover)          // Panic recovery
app.Use(middleware.CORS(config))     // Cross-origin requests
app.Use(middleware.RateLimit(cfg))   // Rate limiting
app.Use(middleware.BasicAuth(cfg))   // Basic authentication
app.Use(middleware.Timeout(5*time.Second))
app.Use(middleware.Compress(cfg))    // Gzip compression
app.Use(middleware.Secure(cfg))      // Security headers
app.Use(middleware.RequestID)        // Request ID injection
app.Use(middleware.BodyLimit(1*middleware.MB))
app.Use(middleware.ETag)             // ETag caching
app.Use(middleware.NoCache)          // Cache prevention
app.Use(middleware.Static("./public")) // Static file serving

Route-specific middleware:

app.GET("/admin", adminHandler, authMiddleware, logMiddleware)

Context API

func handler(c *marten.Ctx) error {
    // Path and query parameters
    id := c.Param("id")
    page := c.QueryInt("page")
    
    // Request data
    ip := c.ClientIP()
    token := c.Bearer()
    
    // JSON binding
    var user User
    if err := c.Bind(&user); err != nil {
        return c.BadRequest("invalid JSON")
    }
    
    // Responses
    return c.OK(data)              // 200
    return c.Created(data)         // 201
    return c.NoContent()           // 204
    return c.BadRequest("error")   // 400
    return c.NotFound("not found") // 404
}

Configuration

// Trailing slash handling
app.SetTrailingSlash(marten.TrailingSlashRedirect)

// Custom 404 handler
app.NotFound(func(c *marten.Ctx) error {
    return c.JSON(404, marten.E("page not found"))
})

// Custom error handler
app.OnError(func(c *marten.Ctx, err error) {
    c.JSON(500, marten.E(err.Error()))
})

// Graceful shutdown
app.RunGraceful(":8080", 10*time.Second)

Benchmarks

Marten performs competitively with Gin and Echo while maintaining zero dependencies.

Benchmark	Marten	Gin	Echo	Chi
Static Route	1,445 ns/op	1,323 ns/op	1,421 ns/op	2,208 ns/op
Param Route	1,536 ns/op	1,419 ns/op	1,474 ns/op	2,520 ns/op
JSON Response	1,651 ns/op	1,583 ns/op	1,754 ns/op	1,890 ns/op
JSON Binding	8,339 ns/op	8,634 ns/op	8,766 ns/op	6,810 ns/op
Multi-Param	1,841 ns/op	1,511 ns/op	1,634 ns/op	2,836 ns/op

Tested on Intel Xeon Platinum 8259CL @ 2.50GHz, Go 1.24, Linux

See benchmarks/ for full comparison with Gin, Echo, Chi and Fiber.

Examples

Example	Description
basic	Hello World, JSON, path and query params
crud-api	RESTful API with validation
auth-jwt	JWT authentication
middleware	Built-in and custom middleware
groups	Route groups and versioning
error-handling	Custom error types and handlers
file-server	Static files and SPA fallback
marten-demo	Full web app with auth and templates

Documentation

Full documentation available at gomarten.github.io/docs

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Community & Discussions

Questions or ideas?
Join the discussion: https://github.com/gomarten/marten/discussions

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.