express-ish

express-ish is a lightweight HTTP routing and middleware library for Go, inspired by Express.js and built on top of the standard net/http package.

It focuses on developer ergonomics (middleware, params, body parsing, helpers) while keeping Go’s execution model explicit and predictable.

This project is learning-driven but fully usable for real services.

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Features

• Express-style routing (app.Get, app.Post)
• Global and route-level middleware
• Custom request context (Ctx)
• Path params (/users/:id)
• Query parsing
• JSON and form body parsing
• JSON, text, redirect responses
• Request-scoped data sharing (Set / Get)
• Timeout, recovery, CORS, dotenv middleware
• Built entirely on Go standard library

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Installation

go get github.com/vinitngr/express-ish

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Basic Usage

app := expressish.New(expressish.Options{
	Addr: ":8080",
})

app.Get("/health", func(c *expressish.Ctx) {
	c.Text(200, "ok")
})

app.Listen()

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Middleware

Middleware follows an Express-style flow using next().

func Auth(c *expressish.Ctx, next expressish.Next) {
	if c.Param("id") == "1" {
		c.Text(401, "unauthorized")
		return
	}
	next()
}

Register globally or per route:

app.Use(middleware.Logger)

app.Get("/users/:id", Auth, handler)

Execution order:

global middleware → route middleware → handler

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Example (Realistic)

A trimmed example demonstrating routing, middleware, params, query, body parsing, and responses:

app.Use(middleware.Logger)
app.Use(middleware.Recovery)

app.Get("/users/:id", Auth, func(c *expressish.Ctx) {
	id := c.Param("id")
	debug := c.Query("debug")

	c.Set("X-User-ID", id)

	c.JSON(200, map[string]any{
		"id":    id,
		"debug": debug == "1",
	})
})

app.Post("/users/:id/action", Auth, func(c *expressish.Ctx) {
	if c.ReqHeader("Content-Type") != "application/json" {
		c.Text(415, "content-type must be application/json")
		return
	}

	type Req struct {
		Action string `json:"action" form:"action"`
	}

	var body Req
	if err := c.Body(&body); err != nil {
		c.Text(400, err.Error())
		return
	}

	if body.Action == "redirect" {
		c.Redirect("/health", 302)
		return
	}

	c.JSON(200, map[string]any{
		"id":     c.Param("id"),
		"action": body.Action,
	})
})

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Request Helpers

Params

c.Param("id")

Query

c.Query("page")
c.QueryInt("page", 1)
c.QueryBool("debug", false)

Body (JSON / form, lazy)

var data MyStruct
err := c.Body(&data)

Parsed only when accessed.

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Response Helpers

c.Text(200, "ok")
c.JSON(200, data)
c.Redirect("/health", 302)
c.Status(204)

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Context Data Sharing

Middleware and handlers share request-scoped data:

c.Set("user", "admin")
user := c.Get("user")

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Design Notes

• Uses Go stdlib internally (net/http, net/url, encoding/json)
• No hidden goroutines or background work
• Lazy parsing (query/body parsed only when used)
• Express-style middleware implemented via function composition
• next() is framework-level, not net/http based

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Status

Experimental but functional.

APIs may evolve as features are added incrementally.

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License

MIT