karlseguin/http.zig

> A from-scratch HTTP/1.1 server library for Zig — the de facto base layer of > the Zig web ecosystem, deliberately not built on std.http.Server.

GitHub repo · License: MIT

Overview

http.zig (module name httpz) is an HTTP/1.1 server library by Karl Seguin, started in March 2023¹. It exists because std.http.Server is slow and assumes well-behaved clients; most other Zig HTTP servers wrap either the std implementation (inheriting its performance) or C libraries². httpz is pure Zig with its own socket handling and parser; the author reports ~140K requests/second for a basic request on an Apple M2². Higher-level Zig frameworks — JetZig and Tokamak — build on it², making httpz roughly what net/http is to Go: the substrate others frame over.

The defining tension is Zig itself. Zig is pre-1.0 and breaks its standard library every release, so httpz maintains a branch per Zig version (zig-0.15, dev, etc.); master tracks the latest stable Zig². As of mid-2026 master targets Zig 0.16 and the author explicitly labels that port experimental and "not well tested"². Adopting httpz means adopting this churn: upgrade pain comes from the language more than from the library.

At ~1.6k stars with a single primary maintainer, it is small by web-framework standards but among the most-used Zig libraries, and actively developed.

Getting Started

zig fetch --save "git+https://github.com/karlseguin/http.zig#master"

// build.zig
const httpz = b.dependency("httpz", .{ .target = target, .optimize = optimize });
exe.root_module.addImport("httpz", httpz.module("httpz"));

// Zig 0.16 / master API
const std = @import("std");
const httpz = @import("httpz");

pub fn main(init: std.process.Init) !void {
    var server = try httpz.Server(void).init(init.io, init.gpa, .{
        .address = .localhost(5882),
    }, {});

    var router = try server.router(.{});
    router.get("/api/user/:id", getUser, .{});
    try server.listen(); // blocks
}

fn getUser(req: *httpz.Request, res: *httpz.Response) !void {
    try res.json(.{ .id = req.param("id").?, .name = "Teg" }, .{});
}

Architecture / How It Works

Comptime handler generics. The core type is httpz.Server(H) where H is your application handler. With H = void, actions are plain fn(*Request, *Response) !void; with a real handler, the instance is passed to every action (the idiomatic way to share a DB pool or config). Signatures are inferred at compile time — no interface boilerplate, no dispatch cost.

Layered override points. A handler can define, in increasing order of control: dispatch (wrap every action — timing, auth, per-request context structs), notFound, uncaughtError, and finally handle, which bypasses httpz's router and dispatching entirely; JetZig hooks handle to supply its own routing² — frameworks consume httpz as a raw connection/parsing engine, applications as a router.

Memory model. Each request gets req.arena / res.arena — a configurable thread-local buffer falling back to an std.heap.ArenaAllocator, freed after the response is written². Response data must stay valid until after the action returns, so the arena (or res.writer()) is the intended path for dynamic bodies. Request bodies land in a static per-connection buffer, a large-buffer pool, or a dynamic allocation depending on size; request.lazy_read_size switches large bodies to streaming via req.reader(timeout_ms) instead of full buffering.

Batteries at the protocol level, not above it. Router with :params, middleware, query/form/multipart/JSON body parsing, server-sent events, internal metrics, a httpz.testing harness for unit-testing actions, and WebSocket upgrades (via the author's companion websocket.zig). No templating, ORM, or sessions — JetZig/Tokamak territory.

Production Notes

• No TLS. httpz speaks plaintext HTTP/1.1 only — no HTTP/2 or HTTP/3;

terminate TLS at a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy).

• Zig version pinning is your main upgrade chore. Pin a zig-X.YY branch

in build.zig.zon. The 0.15 cycle changed the writer API (res.writer() takes a buffer — pass &.{}, httpz buffers internally)²; the 0.16 port rewires I/O through the new std.Io interface and is flagged experimental.

• Form parsing is off by default. request.max_form_count and

request.max_multiform_count default to 0 — form/multipart parsing yields nothing until raised². formData() and multiFormData() are mutually exclusive per request; multipart unescapes names in-place, subtly altering a later req.body().

• Lifetime discipline. Setting res.body to memory that dies when your

action returns is the classic first bug; use res.arena.

• Single-maintainer risk. Karl Seguin is prolific and responsive (he also

maintains pg.zig and websocket.zig), but the bus factor is 1, with no corporate backing. Issue volume is low (~15 open): little churn, but a small contributor pool.

• The 140K req/s figure is author-reported on an M2 for a trivial handler²

— an upper bound, not a capacity plan.

When to Use / When Not

Use when:

• You are writing a Zig service and need an HTTP layer faster and more

defensive than std.http.Server.

• You want a library, not a framework — routing plus request/response

primitives, with your own architecture on top.

• You need WebSockets or SSE from the same server.

Avoid when:

• You need TLS in-process or HTTP/2+ — proxy in front, or use another stack.
• You want rails-style productivity in Zig — JetZig or Tokamak (both built on

httpz) give you more out of the box.

• Your team won't track Zig's breaking releases; a Go or Rust HTTP stack is

operationally far more stable.

Alternatives

• zigzap/zap — wraps the C library facil.io; mature C core, but not pure Zig.

Use it for a batteries-heavier microframework if the C dependency is fine.

• jetzig-framework/jetzig — full MVC-style framework built on httpz; use it

when you want templating, generators, and conventions rather than a library.

• cztomsik/tokamak — dependency-injection-oriented server framework on httpz;

use it for structured larger apps with DI ergonomics.

• ziglang/zig (std.http.Server) — zero dependencies; fine for internal

tools and tests where throughput and hostile clients don't matter.

History

References

1. ^ GitHub repository metadata — created 2023-03-13. https://github.com/karlseguin/http.zig
2. ^ http.zig README (versions, alternatives, performance claim, handler/dispatch, memory & arenas, configuration). https://github.com/karlseguin/http.zig#readme

Tags

zig, http-server, http-1-1, web, networking, server-library, routing, websocket, server-sent-events, low-level