Philosophy¶

The framework you reach for when you want nothing in the way.

Core Principles¶

Zero Dependencies¶

Marten uses only Go's standard library. No external dependencies means:

No dependency conflicts
No security vulnerabilities from third-party code
No version management headaches
Predictable, stable behavior

Simplicity Over Features¶

Every feature in Marten earns its place. We don't add features just because other frameworks have them. If the standard library does it well, we don't wrap it.

Explicit Over Magic¶

No struct tags for routing. No reflection-based dependency injection. No hidden behavior. What you write is what runs.

// Clear and explicit
app.GET("/users/:id", getUser)

// Not magic
// @Route("/users/{id}")
// func getUser(id int) User { ... }

Performance by Default¶

Radix tree routing
Context pooling
Zero allocations in hot paths
No reflection in request handling

Developer Experience¶

Clean, chainable APIs that read like English:

return c.Status(201).JSON(user)
return c.BadRequest("invalid email")
return c.Header("X-Custom", "value").OK(data)

What Marten Is¶

A thin layer over net/http
A routing solution with parameters and groups
A collection of useful middleware
A clean context API for handlers

What Marten Isn't¶

An ORM
A template engine
A full-stack framework
A kitchen sink

Design Decisions¶

Why No Generics for Handlers?¶

Generics add complexity without significant benefit for HTTP handlers. The any type with JSON encoding covers 99% of use cases.

Why Return Errors?¶

Returning errors from handlers enables:

Centralized error handling
Middleware that can inspect errors
Clean handler code without error checking boilerplate

Why Context Pooling?¶

Creating a new context for every request is wasteful. Pooling reduces GC pressure and improves performance under load.

The Marten Way¶

Start simple
Add only what you need
Keep handlers focused
Let middleware handle cross-cutting concerns
Trust the standard library