Chi
Lightweight, idiomatic Go HTTP router and mux that's fully compatible with net/http. Uses context.Context for URL parameters (no custom context). Middleware uses standard http.Handler wrapping. All existing net/http middleware, handlers, and tools work with Chi without modification. Preferred by Go developers who want routing convenience without framework lock-in.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
net/http compatible — standard Go security practices apply. Minimal dependencies reduce attack surface. No framework-specific vulnerabilities.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
You're building a Go HTTP service and want idiomatic, stdlib-compatible routing without framework lock-in — Chi is the 'go developer's router.'
Avoid When
You want batteries-included like Gin or Echo — Chi is minimal and requires more manual work for common patterns like JSON binding and error handling.
Use Cases
- • Build Go agent HTTP APIs with clean URL routing and middleware using standard net/http compatibility
- • Add routing and middleware to Go agent services while preserving compatibility with the net/http ecosystem
- • Create composable middleware chains for agent authentication, logging, and rate limiting with standard handlers
- • Build Go microservices where net/http standard library compatibility is required
- • Route WebSocket and SSE agent endpoints alongside REST routes using standard net/http handlers
Not For
- • Applications needing a full-featured framework — Chi is a router, not a framework; no built-in ORM, validation, or response helpers
- • Teams wanting batteries-included like Gin — Chi requires more boilerplate for JSON handling and error responses
- • Projects requiring performance extremes — Gin is faster than Chi for most benchmarks; Fiber (fasthttp) is fastest
Interface
Authentication
Router library — auth via standard http.Handler middleware (jwtauth, etc.).
Pricing
MIT license. Go-chi organization maintains Chi and related middleware.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ URL parameters are accessed via chi.URLParam(r, "paramName") not context directly — importing chi for every handler file is required; consider a helper wrapper
- ⚠ Chi middleware order matters — middleware added at the router level applies to all routes, but route-group middleware only applies within that group; apply security middleware globally
- ⚠ Mount() for sub-routers strips the prefix — the sub-router sees the path without the mount prefix; this is intentional but differs from Gin's group behavior
- ⚠ Chi doesn't handle 404/405 automatically beyond basic responses — customize via r.NotFound() and r.MethodNotAllowed() handlers for production-quality error responses
- ⚠ Chi's stdlib compatibility means no JSON helper built-in — use encoding/json directly or a helper library; Gin's c.JSON() convenience doesn't exist in Chi
- ⚠ Server shutdown with in-flight requests requires custom graceful shutdown code — net/http's http.Server.Shutdown() handles this; Chi itself has no shutdown hooks
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.