OKAPI - Lightweight Go Web Framework with OpenAPI 3 & Swagger UI

Okapi is a modern, minimalist HTTP web framework for Go, inspired by FastAPI's elegance. Designed for simplicity, performance, and developer happiness, it helps you build fast, scalable, and well-documented APIs with minimal boilerplate.

The framework is named after the okapi (/oʊˈkɑːpiː/), a rare and graceful mammal native to the rainforests of the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Just like its namesake, which resembles a blend of giraffe and zebra. Okapi blends simplicity and strength in a unique, powerful package.

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✨ Key Features

✔ Intuitive & Expressive API – Clean, declarative syntax for effortless route and middleware definition.

✔ Automatic Request Binding – Seamlessly parse JSON, XML, form data, query params, headers, and path variables into structs.

✔ Built-in Auth & Security – Native support for JWT, Basic Auth, and custom middleware.

✔ Standard Library Compatibility - Integrates seamlessly with Go’s net/http standard library.

✔ Blazing Fast Routing – Optimized HTTP router with low overhead for high-performance applications.

✔ First-Class Documentation – OpenAPI 3.0 & Swagger UI integrated out of the box—auto-generate API docs with minimal effort.

✔ Dynamic Route Management – Easily enable or disable individual routes or groups, with automatic Swagger sync and no code commenting.

✔ Modern Tooling

• Route grouping & middleware chaining
• Static file serving
• Templating engine support
• CORS management
• Fine-grained timeout controls

✔ Developer Experience

• Minimal boilerplate
• Clear error handling
• Structured logging
• Easy testing

Built for speed, simplicity, and real-world use—whether you're prototyping or running in production.

---

Why Choose Okapi?

• Easy to Learn: With familiar Go syntax and intuitive APIs, you can be productive in minutes—even on your first project.
• Lightweight and Unopinionated: Okapi is built from the ground up and doesn’t wrap or build on top of another framework. It gives you full control without unnecessary abstraction or bloat.
• Highly Flexible: Designed to adapt to your architecture and workflow—not the other way around.
• Built for Production: Fast, reliable, and efficient under real-world load. Okapi is optimized for performance without sacrificing developer experience.
• Standard Library Compatibility: Integrates seamlessly with Go’s net/http standard library, making it easy to combine Okapi with existing Go code and tools.
• Automatic OpenAPI Documentation: Generate comprehensive OpenAPI specs automatically for every route, keeping your API documentation always up to date with your code.
• Dynamic Route Management: Enable or disable routes and route groups at runtime. No need to comment out code—just toggle behavior cleanly and efficiently.

Ideal for:

• High-performance REST APIs
• Composable microservices
• Rapid prototyping
• Learning & teaching Go web development

Whether you're building your next startup, internal tools, or side projects—Okapi scales with you.

---

Installation

mkdir myapi && cd myapi
go mod init myapi

go get github.com/jkaninda/okapi@latest

---

Quick Start

Create a file named main.go:

Example

Hello

package main

import (
  "github.com/jkaninda/okapi"
)
func main() {

	o := okapi.Default()
	
	o.Get("/", func(c okapi.Context) error {
		return c.OK(okapi.M{"message": "Hello from Okapi Web Framework!","License":"MIT"})
	})
	// Start the server
	if err := o.Start(); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

Run your server:

go run main.go

Visit http://localhost:8080 to see the response.

{
  "License": "MIT",
  "message": "Hello from Okapi Web Framework!"
}

Simple HTTP POST

package main

import (
  "github.com/jkaninda/okapi"
  "net/http"
)

type Response struct {
  Success bool   `json:"success"`
  Message string `json:"message"`
  Data    Book   `json:"data"`
}
type Book struct {
  Name  string `json:"name" form:"name"  max:"50" required:"true" description:"Book name"`
  Price int    `json:"price" form:"price" query:"price" yaml:"price" required:"true" description:"Book price"`
}
type ErrorResponse struct {
  Success bool        `json:"success"`
  Status  int         `json:"status"`
  Details any `json:"details"`
}

func main() {
  // Create a new Okapi instance with default config
  o := okapi.Default()

  o.Post("/books", func(c okapi.Context) error {
    book := Book{}
    err := c.Bind(&book)
    if err != nil {
      return c.ErrorBadRequest(ErrorResponse{Success: false, Status: http.StatusBadRequest, Details: err.Error()})
    }
    response := Response{
      Success: true,
      Message: "This is a simple HTTP POST",
      Data:    book,
    }
    return c.OK(response)
  },
    // OpenAPI Documentation
    okapi.DocSummary("Create a new Book"), // Route Summary
    okapi.DocRequestBody(Book{}),                                   //  Request body
    okapi.DocResponse(Response{}),                                  // Success Response body
    okapi.DocResponse(http.StatusBadRequest, ErrorResponse{}), // Error response body

  )
  // Start the server
  if err := o.Start(); err != nil {
    panic(err)
  }
}

Interactive API docs

Now go to http://localhost:8080/docs to see the interactive API documentation generated by Okapi.

Alternative API docs

And now, go to http://localhost:8080/redoc to see the Redoc documentation.

---

Routing

Okapi supports all standard HTTP methods:

o.Get("/books", getBooks)
o.Post("/books", createBook)
o.Get("/books/:id", getBook)
o.Put("/books/:id", updateBook)
o.Delete("/books/:id", deleteBook)

Route Groups

Route groups in Okapi allow you to organize your routes under a common path prefix, apply middleware selectively, and control group-level behaviors like deprecation or disabling. This feature makes it easy to manage API versioning, logical route separation, and access control.

Features:

• Nesting: Define sub-groups within a parent group to build hierarchical route structures.
• Middleware: Attach middleware to a group to apply it to all nested routes.
• Deprecation: Mark a group as deprecated to indicate it's being phased out (useful for OpenAPI documentation).
• Disabling: Temporarily disable a group to return 404 Not Found for all its routes.
• Tagging: Automatically tag routes in OpenAPI documentation based on group names.

Example:

o := okapi.Default()

// Create the main API group
api := o.Group("/api")

// Versioned subgroups
v1 := api.Group("/v1").Deprecated()        // Marked as deprecated
v2 := api.Group("/v2")                     // Active version
v3 := api.Group("v3", testMiddleware).Disable() // Disabled, returns 404

// Define routes
v1.Get("/books", getBooks)
v2.Get("/books", v2GetBooks)
v3.Get("/books", v3GetBooks) // Will not be accessible

// Admin subgroup with middleware
admin := api.Group("/admin", adminMiddleware)
admin.Get("/dashboard", getDashboard)

This structure improves route readability and maintainability, especially in larger APIs.

---

Path Syntax Examples

Okapi supports flexible and expressive route path patterns, including named parameters and wildcards:

o.Get("/books/{id}", getBook)       // Named path parameter using curly braces
o.Get("/books/:id", getBook)        // Named path parameter using colon prefix
o.Get("/*", getBook)                // Catch-all wildcard (matches everything)
o.Get("/*any", getBook)             // Catch-all with named parameter (name is ignored)
o.Get("/*path", getBook)            // Catch-all with named parameter

Use whichever syntax feels most natural — Okapi normalizes both {} and : styles for named parameters and supports glob-style wildcards for flexible matching.

---

Request Handling

Path Parameters

o.Get("/books/:id", func(c okapi.Context) error {
	id := c.Param("id")
	return c.String(http.StatusOK, id)
})

Query Parameters

o.Get("/books", func(c okapi.Context) error {
	name := c.Query("name")
	return c.String(http.StatusOK, name)
})

---

Handling Form Data

Multipart Form (multipart/form-data)

Handle standard form fields and file uploads:

o.Post("/books", func(c okapi.Context) error {
	name := c.FormValue("name")
	price := c.FormValue("price")

	logo, err := c.FormFile("logo")
	if err != nil {
        return c.AbortBadRequest("Bad request", err)
	}
	file, err := logo.Open()
	if err != nil {
            return c.AbortBadRequest("Bad request", err)
	}
	defer file.Close()
	// You can now read or save the uploaded file
	return c.String(http.StatusOK, "File uploaded successfully")
})

---

Struct Binding

Bind request data directly into a struct from multiple sources:

type Book struct {
	ID    int    `json:"id" param:"id" query:"id" form:"id"`
	Name  string `json:"name" xml:"name" form:"name" min:"4" max:"50" required:"true"`
	Price int    `json:"price" form:"price" required:"true"`
	Logo *multipart.FileHeader `form:"logo" required:"true"`
    Content string `header:"Content-Type" json:"content-type" xml:"content-type" required:"true"`
	// Supports both ?tags=a&tags=b and ?tags=a,b
	Tags []string `form:"tags" query:"tags" default:"a,b"`
}

o.Post("/books", func(c okapi.Context) error {
	book := &Book{}
	if err := c.Bind(book); err != nil {
		return c.ErrorBadRequest(err)
	}
	return c.JSON(http.StatusOK, book)
})

Supported Sources

• Path parameters: param
• Query parameters: query
• Form fields: form
• JSON body: json
• XML body: xml
• Headers: header
• Description: description - OpenAPI description

---

Validation and Defaults

Okapi supports simple, declarative validation using struct tags.

Semantics

Field Type	Tag	Meaning
string	min:"10"	Minimum length = 10
string	max:"50"	Maximum length = 50
number	min:"5"	Minimum value = 5
number	max:"100"	Maximum value = 100
any	default:"..."	Default value if empty
any	required:"true"	Field must be provided

---

Middleware

Built-in Example (Basic Auth)

auth := okapi.BasicAuth{
	Username: "admin",
	Password: "password",
	Realm:    "Restricted",
    ContextKey: "user",// where to store the username e.g. "user", default(username)

}
// Global middleware
o.Use(auth.Middleware)
// Attach SingleRouteMiddleware to this route only, without affecting others
o.Get("/", SingleRouteMiddlewareHandler).Use(SingleRouteMiddleware)

// Group middleware
o.Get("/admin", adminHandler)

---

JWT Middleware

Okapi includes powerful and flexible JWT middleware to secure your routes with JSON Web Tokens. It supports multiple signing mechanisms, key sources, claim validation strategies, and OpenAPI integration.

Features

• HS256 symmetric signing via SigningSecret
• RS256 and other asymmetric algorithms via RSAKey
• Remote JWKS discovery via JwksUrl (e.g., OIDC or Auth0)
• Local JWKS via JwksFile
• Claims validation with ClaimsExpression or ValidateClaims
• OpenAPI integration with .WithBearerAuth()
• Selective claim forwarding using ForwardClaims

Example: Basic HS256 Authentication

jwtAuth := okapi.JWTAuth{
    SigningSecret: []byte("supersecret"),      // Shared secret for HS256
    TokenLookup:   "header:Authorization",     // Token source: header, query, or cookie (default: header:Authorization)
    ContextKey:    "user",                     // Key under which claims are stored in context
}

Example: Remote JWKS (OIDC, Auth0)

jwtAuth := okapi.JWTAuth{
    JwksUrl:     "https://example.com/.well-known/jwks.json",  // Remote JWKS URL
    TokenLookup: "header:Authorization",
    ContextKey:  "user",
}

Claims Expression (Optional)

Use ClaimsExpression to define rules for validating claims using simple expressions. This is ideal for access control based on roles, scopes, or other custom claim logic.

Supported Functions

• Equals(field, value)
• Prefix(field, prefix)
• Contains(field, val1, val2, ...)
• OneOf(field, val1, val2, ...)

Logical Operators

• ! — NOT
• && — AND (evaluated before OR)
• || — OR (evaluated after AND)

Example:

jwtAuth := okapi.JWTAuth{
    SigningSecret:    []byte("supersecret"),
    ClaimsExpression: "Equals(`email_verified`, `true`) && Equals(`user.role`, `admin`) && Contains(`tags`, `gold`, `silver`)",
    TokenLookup:      "header:Authorization",
    ContextKey:       "user",
    ForwardClaims: map[string]string{
        "email": "user.email",
        "role":  "user.role",
        "name":  "user.name",
    },
}

Forwarding Claims to Context

ForwardClaims lets you expose specific claims to your handlers via the request context. This keeps handlers decoupled from the full JWT while retaining useful information.

Supports dot notation for nested claims.

Example:

jwtAuth.ForwardClaims = map[string]string{
    "email": "user.email",
    "role":  "user.role",
    "name":  "user.name",
}

Get these claims in your handler:

func whoAmIHandler(c okapi.Context) error {
    email := c.GetString("email")
    if email == "" {
        return c.AbortUnauthorized("Unauthorized", fmt.Errorf("user not authenticated"))
    }
	slog.Info("Who am I am ", "email", email, "role", c.GetString("role"), "name", c.GetString("name"))
// Respond with the current user information
    return c.JSON(http.StatusOK, M{
                "email": email,
                "role":  c.GetString("role"),
                "name":  c.GetString("name"),
		}, )
}

Custom Claim Validation

You can define your own ValidateClaims function to fully control claim checks. Use this for advanced logic beyond what ClaimsExpression supports. You can combine this with ClaimsExpression for more complex scenarios.

Example:

jwtAuth.ValidateClaims = func(c Context, claims jwt.Claims) error {
    method := c.Request().Method
    slog.Info("Request method,", "method", method)
    mapClaims, ok := claims.(jwt.MapClaims)
    if !ok {
        return errors.New("invalid claims type")
    }

    if emailVerified, _ := mapClaims["email_verified"].(bool); !emailVerified {
        return errors.New("email not verified")
    }

    if role, _ := mapClaims["role"].(string); role != "admin" {
        return errors.New("unauthorized role")
    }

    return nil
}

Custom Error Handling

The OnUnauthorized handler lets you customize responses for failed JWT validations, including:

• Missing or malformed tokens
• Expired tokens
• Failed claims validation (via either ClaimsExpression or ValidateClaims)

Example Implementation:

auth := okapi.JWTAuth{
    Audience:      "okapi.example.com",
    SigningSecret: SigningSecret,
    // ... other configurations
    OnUnauthorized: func(c okapi.Context) error {
        // Return custom unauthorized response
        return c.ErrorUnauthorized("Unauthorized")
    },
}

Protecting Routes

Apply the JWT middleware to route groups or individual routes to require authentication.

// Apply middleware globally (optional)
o.Use(jwtAuth.Middleware)

admin := o.Group("/admin", jwtAuth.Middleware). // Protect /admin routes
    WithBearerAuth()                            // Adds Bearer auth to OpenAPI docs

admin.Get("/users", adminGetUsersHandler)       // Secured route

// Attach SingleRouteMiddleware to this route only, without affecting others
o.Get("/", SingleRouteMiddlewareHandler).Use(SingleRouteMiddleware)

---

CORS middleware

cors := okapi.Cors{AllowedOrigins: []string{"http://localhost:8080", "https://example.com"}, AllowedHeaders: []string{}}
o := okapi.New(okapi.WithCors(cors))
	o.Get("/", func(c okapi.Context) error {
		return c.String(http.StatusOK, "Hello World!")
	})

Custom Middleware

func customMiddleware(next okapi.HandlerFunc) okapi.HandlerFunc {
	return func(c okapi.Context) error {
		start := time.Now()
		err := next(c)
		log.Printf("Request took %v", time.Since(start))
		return err
	}
}

o.Use(customMiddleware)

Std Middleware

o.UseMiddleware(func(handler http.Handler) http.Handler {
		return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
			slog.Info("Hello Go standard HTTP middleware function")
			handler.ServeHTTP(w, r)
		})

	})

---

OpenAPI / Swagger Integration

Okapi provides automatic OpenAPI (Swagger) documentation generation with a built-in interactive UI. The documentation is dynamically generated from your route definitions, ensuring it always stays in sync with your API implementation.

Quick Start

• Using okapi.Default() Documentation is enabled by default and served at /docs.

o := okapi.Default() // Docs available at /docs

• Using okapi.New() with WithOpenAPIDocs() If you initialize Okapi with okapi.New(), documentation is disabled by default. You can enable it with WithOpenAPIDocs(), this approach also allows you to dynamically disable the documentation at runtime (e.g., in production) based on environment variables or configuration.

o := okapi.New() // Disabled
if os.Getenv("ENABLE_DOCS") == "true" {
	o.WithOpenAPIDocs() 
}

Enabling with Custom Configuration

You can customize the OpenAPI documentation by passing a configuration object to WithOpenAPIDocs().

o := okapi.New().WithOpenAPIDocs(
    okapi.OpenAPI{
        Title:      "Example API",
        Version:    "1.0.0",
        Contact: okapi.Contact{
            Name:  "API Support",
            Email: "support@example.com",
        },
    },
)

Security Schemes

You can define authentication mechanisms for your API, such as Basic Auth, Bearer tokens, and OAuth2 flows.

o.WithOpenAPIDocs(okapi.OpenAPI{
    Title:   "Okapi Web Framework Example",
    Version: "1.0.0",
    License: okapi.License{Name: "MIT"},
    SecuritySchemes: okapi.SecuritySchemes{
        {
            Name:   "basicAuth",
            Type:   "http",
            Scheme: "basic",
        },
        {
            Name:         "bearerAuth",
            Type:         "http",
            Scheme:       "bearer",
            BearerFormat: "JWT",
        },
        {
            Name: "OAuth2",
            Type: "oauth2",
            Flows: &okapi.OAuthFlows{
                AuthorizationCode: &okapi.OAuthFlow{
                    AuthorizationURL: "https://auth.example.com/authorize",
                    TokenURL:         "https://auth.example.com/token",
                    Scopes: map[string]string{
                        "read":  "Read access",
                        "write": "Write access",
                    },
                },
            },
        },
    },
})

Applying Security Schemes to Routes

You can apply security schemes to individual routes or entire route groups.

Example – Applying to a Single Route

var bearerAuthSecurity = []map[string][]string{
    {"bearerAuth": {}},
}

o.Get("/books", getBooksHandler).WithSecurity(bearerAuthSecurity...)

Example Applying to a Group of Routes

api := o.Group("/api", jwtMiddleware).WithSecurity(bearerAuthSecurity)
api.Get("/", apiHandler)

Tip: If you are defining routes using RouteDefinition, you can also set security directly using the Security field.

Documenting Routes

Okapi provides two ways to attach OpenAPI documentation to your routes:

1. Composable Functions (Direct Style)

This approach uses individual okapi.Doc* functions for each aspect of your route documentation. It’s concise and works well for simple routes.

o.Get("/books", getBooksHandler,
    okapi.DocSummary("List all available books"),
    okapi.DocTags("Books"),
    okapi.DocQueryParam("author", "string", "Filter by author name", false),
    okapi.DocQueryParam("limit", "int", "Maximum results to return (default 20)", false), 
    okapi.DocResponseHeader("X-Client-Id", "string", "Client ID of the request"),
    okapi.DocResponse([]Book{}), // Response for OpenAPI docs, Shorthand for DocResponse(200, value)
    okapi.DocResponse(400, ErrorResponse{}),// Response error for OpenAPI docs
    okapi.DocResponse(401, ErrorResponse{}),// Response error for OpenAPI docs

)

2. Fluent Builder Style okapi.Doc() + .Build()

For more complex or dynamic documentation setup, Okapi offers a fluent builder API. Use okapi.Doc() to begin building, chain options, and call .Build() or .AsOption() to finalize.

o.Post("/books", createBookHandler,
    okapi.Doc().
    Summary("Add a new book to inventory").
    Tags("Books").
    BearerAuth().
	ResponseHeader("X-Client-Id", "string", "Client ID of the request").
    RequestBody(BookRequest{}).
    Response(201,Book{}).
    Response(400,ErrorResponse{}).
    Response(401,ErrorResponse{}).
    Build(),
)

Available Documentation Options

Method	Description
DocSummary()/Doc().Summary()	Short endpoint description
DocTag()/DocTags()/Doc().Tags()	Groups related endpoints
DocBearerAuth()	Enables Bearer token authentication
DocRequestBody()/Doc().RequestBody()	Documents request body structure
DocResponse()/Doc().Response()	Documents response structure
DocPathParam()/Doc().PathParam()	Documents path parameters
DocQueryParam()/Doc().QueryParam()	Documents query parameters
DocHeader()/ Doc().Header()	Documents header parameters
DocResponseHeader()/Doc().ResponseHeader()	Documents response header
DocDeprecated()/Doc().Deprecated()	Mark route deprecated

Swagger UI Preview

Okapi automatically generates Swagger UI for all routes:

Redoc Preview

---

Enabling and Disabling Routes & Groups

Okapi gives you flexible control over your API by allowing routes and route groups to be dynamically enabled or disabled. This is a clean and efficient alternative to commenting out code when you want to temporarily remove endpoints.

Overview

You can disable:

• Individual routes — blocks access to a specific endpoint
• Route groups — disables an entire section of your API, including all nested routes

This behavior is reflected both in runtime responses and API documentation.

Type	HTTP Response	Swagger Docs	Affects Child Routes
Disabled Route	404 Not Found	Hidden	N/A
Disabled Group	404 Not Found	Hidden	Yes — all nested

Key Features

• Disabled routes/groups return a 404 Not Found
• Automatically excluded from Swagger/OpenAPI documentation
• Disabling a group recursively disables all nested routes and sub-groups
• No need to comment out code — just call .Disable() or .Enable()

Use Cases

• Temporarily removing endpoints during maintenance
• Controlling access based on feature flags
• Deprecating old API versions
• Creating toggleable test or staging routes

Usage Example

app := okapi.Default()

// Create the root API group
api := app.Group("api")

// Define and disable v1 group
v1 := api.Group("v1").Disable() // All v1 routes return 404 and are hidden from docs
v1.Get("/", func(c okapi.Context) error {
    return c.OK(okapi.M{"version": "v1"})
})

// Define active v2 group
v2 := api.Group("v2")
v2.Get("/", func(c okapi.Context) error {
    return c.OK(okapi.M{"version": "v2"})
})

// Start the server
if err := app.Start(); err != nil {
    panic(err)
}

Behavior Details

• Disabled Route:

  • Responds with 404 Not Found
  • Excluded from Swagger docs

• Disabled Group:

  • All nested routes and sub-groups are recursively disabled
  • All affected routes are hidden from Swagger

To re-enable any route or group, simply call the .Enable() method or remove the .Disable() call.

---

Templating

Using a Custom Renderer

o.Renderer = okapi.RendererFunc(func(w io.Writer, name string, data interface{}, c okapi.Context) error {
	tmpl, err := template.ParseFiles("templates/" + name + ".html")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	return tmpl.ExecuteTemplate(w, name, data)
})

Or Using a Struct-Based Renderer

type Template struct {
	templates *template.Template
}

func (t *Template) Render(w io.Writer, name string, data interface{}, c okapi.Context) error {
	return t.templates.ExecuteTemplate(w, name, data)
}

tmpl := &Template{
	templates: template.Must(template.ParseGlob("templates/*.html")),
}
o.With().WithRenderer(&Template{templates: template.Must(template.ParseGlob("public/views/*.html"))})

// or
// o.With().WithRenderer(tmpl)

Rendering a View

o.Get("/", func(c okapi.Context) error {
	return c.Render(http.StatusOK, "welcome", okapi.M{
		"title":   "Welcome Page",
		"message": "Hello from Okapi!",
	})
})

---

Static File Serving

Serve static assets and individual files:

// Serve a single file
o.Get("/favicon.ico", func(c okapi.Context) error {
	c.ServeFile("public/favicon.ico")
	return nil
})

// Serve an entire directory
o.Static("/static", "public/assets")

TLS Server

// Initialize TLS configuration for secure HTTPS connections
    tls, err := okapi.LoadTLSConfig("path/to/cert.pem", "path/to/key.pem", "", false)
    if err != nil {
    panic(fmt.Sprintf("Failed to load TLS configuration: %v", err))
    }
    // Create a new Okapi instance with default config
    // With OpenAPI enabled, /docs
    o := okapi.Default()
    // Use HTTPS
    // o := okapi.New(okapi.WithTLS(tls))
    
    // Configure a secondary HTTPS server listening on port 8443
    // This creates both HTTP (8080) and HTTPS (8443) endpoints
    o.With(okapi.WithTLSServer(":8443", tls))
    
    // Register application routes and handlers
    o.Get("/", func(c okapi.Context) error {
    return c.JSON(http.StatusOK, okapi.M{
    "message": "Welcome to Okapi!",
    "status":  "operational",
    })
    })
    // Start the servers
    // This will launch both HTTP and HTTPS listeners in separate goroutines
    log.Println("Starting server on :8080 (HTTP) and :8443 (HTTPS)")
    if err := o.Start(); err != nil {
    panic(fmt.Sprintf("Server failed to start: %v", err))
    }
    }

---

Context

Okapi provides a powerful and lightweight Context object that wraps the HTTP request and response. It is designed to simplify handling HTTP requests by offering a clean and expressive API for accessing request data, binding parameters, sending responses, and managing errors.

The Context is passed to all route handlers and supports:

• Accessing path parameters, query parameters, form values, file uploads, and headers
• Binding request data to structs using various formats (JSON, XML, YAML, form data, etc.)
• Sending structured responses (JSON, text, HTML, XML, file)
• Handling cookies, headers, and other request metadata
• Managing the request lifecycle (e.g., aborting early)
• Built-in helpers for standardized error responses
• Access to the underlying *http.Request and http.ResponseWriter for low-level control

This makes it easy to focus on business logic without worrying about low-level HTTP details.

Context Fields

Method	Description
Request()	The underlying *http.Request for accessing request data
Response()	The underlying http.ResponseWriter for sending responses

Binding Methods

The context supports multiple binding mechanisms depending on content type and request source

---

Response Methods

Okapi provides a rich set of response methods to send various types of responses back to the client. These methods automatically set the appropriate HTTP status codes and content types.

---

Error Handling

Okapi provides a comprehensive error-handling system. You can return an error directly from your route handler, and Okapi will format the response automatically.

Additionally, the Context includes many helper methods to send standardized HTTP error responses with custom messages and optional wrapped errors.

These helpers provide consistency and reduce boilerplate when handling errors in your handlers or middleware.

---

Route Definition

Okapi provides a clean, declarative way to define and register routes. It supports all standard HTTP methods, including GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, and OPTIONS.

You can define routes individually or register multiple routes at once using the okapi.RegisterRoutes function and the RouteDefinition struct, which is especially useful when organizing routes by controller or feature module.

Defining Routes with RouteDefinition

To group and manage routes more effectively, you can define them as a slice of okapi.RouteDefinition. This pattern is ideal for structuring routes in controllers or service layers.

Example: Book Controller

type BookController struct{}

func (bc *BookController) GetBooks(c okapi.Context) error {
	// Simulate fetching books from a database
	return c.OK(okapi.M{"success": true, "message": "Books retrieved successfully"})
}

func (bc *BookController) CreateBook(c okapi.Context) error {
	// Simulate creating a book in a database
	return c.Created(okapi.M{
		"success": true,
		"message": "Book created successfully",
	})
}

Defining Controller Routes

func (bc *BookController) Routes() []okapi.RouteDefinition {
	apiGroup := &okapi.Group{Prefix: "/api"}
	return []okapi.RouteDefinition{
		{
			Method:  http.MethodGet,
			Path:    "/books",
			Handler: bc.GetBooks,
			Group:   apiGroup,
		},
		{
			Method:  http.MethodPost,
			Path:    "/books",
			Handler: bc.CreateBook,
			Group:   apiGroup,
			Middlewares: []okapi.Middleware{customMiddleware}
			Options: []okapi.RouteOption{
				okapi.DocSummary("Create Book"), // OpenAPI documentation
			}, 
			Security: bearerAuthSecurity, // Apply Bearer Auth security scheme

        },
	}
}

Registering Routes

You can register routes using one of the following approaches:

app := okapi.Default()
bookController := &BookController{}

// Method 1: Register directly to the app instance
app.Register(bookController.Routes()...)

// Using a route group
// apiGroup := app.Group("/api")
// apiGroup.Register(bookController.Routes()...)


// Method 2: Use the global helper to register with the target instance
okapi.RegisterRoutes(app, bookController.Routes())

Both methods achieve the same result, choose the one that best fits your project’s style.

See the example in the examples/route-definition directory for a complete application using this pattern.

---

Standard Library Compatibility

Okapi integrates seamlessly with Go’s net/http standard library, enabling you to:

1. Use existing http.Handler middleware
2. Register standard http.HandlerFunc handlers
3. Combine Okapi-style routes with standard library handlers

This makes Okapi ideal for gradual adoption or hybrid use in existing Go projects.

Middleware Compatibility

Okapi’s UseMiddleware bridges standard http.Handler middleware into Okapi’s middleware system. This lets you reuse the wide ecosystem of community-built middleware—such as logging, metrics, tracing, compression, and more.

Signature

func (o *Okapi) UseMiddleware(middleware func(http.Handler) http.Handler)

Example: Injecting a Custom Header

o := okapi.Default()

// Add a custom version header to all responses
o.UseMiddleware(func(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
    return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        w.Header().Set("X-Version", "v1.2.0")
        next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
    })
})

Handler Compatibility

You can register any http.HandlerFunc using HandleStd, or use full http.Handler instances via HandleHTTP. These retain Okapi’s routing and middleware features while supporting familiar handler signatures.

HandleStd Signature

func (o *Okapi) HandleStd(method, path string, handler http.HandlerFunc, opts ...RouteOption)

Example: Basic Standard Library Handler

o := okapi.Default()

o.HandleStd("GET", "/greeting", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.Write([]byte("Hello from Okapi!"))
})

---

Migration Tips

Migrating an existing net/http application? Okapi makes it painless.

Mixed Routing Support

You can mix Okapi and standard handlers in the same application:

// Okapi-style route
o.Handle("GET", "/okapi", func(c okapi.Context) error {
    return c.OK(okapi.M{"status": "ok"})
})

// Standard library handler
o.HandleStd("GET", "/standard", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    w.WriteHeader(http.StatusOK)
    w.Write([]byte("standard response"))
})

Error Handling Differences

• http.HandlerFunc: must manually call w.WriteHeader(...)
• okapi.Handle: can return an error or use helpers like c.JSON, c.Text, c.OK, c.ErrorNotFound() or c.AbortBadRequest()

---

Explore Another Project: Goma Gateway

Are you building a microservices architecture? Do you need a powerful yet lightweight API Gateway or a high-performance reverse proxy to secure and manage your services effortlessly?

Check out my other project — Goma Gateway.

Goma Gateway is a high-performance, declarative API Gateway built for modern microservices. It comes with a rich set of built-in middleware, including:

• Basic, JWT, OAuth2, LDAP, and ForwardAuth authentication
• Caching and rate limiting
• Bot detection
• Built-in load balancing
• Simple configuration with minimal overhead
• ...and more!

Protocol support: REST, GraphQL, gRPC, TCP, and UDP

Security: Automatic HTTPS via Let’s Encrypt or use your own TLS certificates

Whether you're managing internal APIs or exposing public endpoints, Goma Gateway helps you do it efficiently, securely, and with minimal complexity.

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to your fork
5. Open a Pull Request

---

🌟 Star History

⭐ If you find Okapi useful, please consider giving it a star on GitHub!

Support & Community

• Bug Reports: GitHub Issues
• Feature Requests: GitHub Discussions
• Contact: Open an issue for any questions
• LinkedIn: Jonas Kaninda

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Made with ❤️ for the Go community

⭐ Star us on GitHub — it helps!

Copyright (c) 2025 Jonas Kaninda