Building a RESTful API in Go with Chi: A Developer’s Guide

In today’s fast-paced web development world, building efficient and maintainable APIs is crucial. As a Go developer, I’ve explored various frameworks, but Chi has consistently stood out for its simplicity and power. Today, I’ll share my experience building a RESTful API using Chi and why it might be your next go-to framework.

Why Choose Chi?

When I first started with Go web development, the standard net/http package seemed sufficient. However, as projects grew more complex, I needed something more structured without the overhead of heavy frameworks. That’s where Chi came into the picture.

Chi is lightweight, extremely flexible, and built on top of Go’s standard net/http package. It doesn’t try to abstract away the core concepts you already know – instead, it enhances them with powerful routing and middleware capabilities.

Setting Up Your Project

First things first: let’s structure our project. A well-organized codebase makes development and maintenance much smoother. Here’s how I typically organize my Chi projects:

go mod init myapi
go get -u github.com/go-chi/chi/v5

Creating Your First Routes

Chi’s routing is both powerful and intuitive. The router feels natural to write and read – something I particularly appreciate when reviewing code months later.

Middleware Magic

One of Chi’s strongest features is its middleware system. You can easily add authentication, logging, or custom business logic to your routes.

Best Practices and Common Patterns

Through my experience, I’ve found several patterns that work exceptionally well with Chi:

1. Use middleware for cross-cutting concerns
2. Group related routes together
3. Implement graceful error handling
4. Structure your handlers consistently

Testing Your API

One aspect I love about Chi is how testable the resulting code is. The framework doesn’t get in the way of writing clean, isolated tests.

Deploying Your API

When it comes to deployment, Chi applications are straightforward to handle. They compile into a single binary, making containerization and deployment a breeze.

Conclusion

Building RESTful APIs with Chi has become one of my favorite development experiences in Go. Its simplicity doesn’t compromise power, and its flexibility doesn’t create complexity. Whether you’re building a small service or a large API, Chi provides the tools you need while staying out of your way.

Remember, the best framework is the one that lets you focus on solving business problems rather than fighting with implementation details. In my experience, Chi strikes that balance perfectly.