Maw

A minimal web framework for Rust. No macros, just functions.

Why

• No macros. Routes are just functions, nothing hidden behind attributes.
• c.next().await works like Express/Fiber middleware. Call it, then inspect or modify the response after.
• println!("{router:#?}") prints every route with its handlers and, in debug builds, source location.
• Handlers can be closures, plain functions, or structs.

Quick Start

use maw::prelude::*;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), MawError> {
    let app = App::new().router(
        Router::new()
            .get("/", async |_: &mut Ctx| "Hello!")
            .get("/user/{id}", async |c: &mut Ctx| {
                let id: u32 = c.req.param("id")?;
                c.res.json(format!("User {id}"));
                Ok(())
            })
    );
    app.listen("127.0.0.1:3000").await
}

Middleware

Call next(), do work before and after it:

Router::new()
    .middleware(async |c: &mut Ctx| {
        let start = std::time::Instant::now();
        c.next().await;
        println!("took {:?}", start.elapsed()); // after the handler runs
    })
    .get("/", async |_: &mut Ctx| "Hello!")

Or scope it to one route:

.get("/protected", (auth_middleware, async |c: &mut Ctx| {
    c.res.send("secret stuff");
}))

Three Ways to Write Handlers

// Closure
.get("/", async |c: &mut Ctx| c.res.send("hi"))
.get("/", async |_: &mut Ctx| "hi")

// Function
async fn handler(c: &mut Ctx) -> &'static str {
    "hi"
}
.get("/", handler)

// Struct, for handlers that carry their own state
struct RateLimit { max: u32 }

impl Handler<&mut Ctx> for RateLimit {
    type Output = ();
    async fn call(&self, c: &mut Ctx) -> Self::Output {
        c.next().await;
    }
}

.middleware(RateLimit { max: 100 })

Passing Extra Data Into a Handler

WithState lets you hand a closure some extra value without writing a struct for it:

.get("/users/{id}", WithState(db_pool.clone(), async |c: &mut Ctx, pool: DbPool| {
    let id: u32 = c.req.param("id")?;
    // use pool
    Ok(())
}))

No separate handler type, no trait impl, just a closure that takes one more argument. The value needs Clone + Send + Sync + 'static.

Request Data

async |c: &mut Ctx| {
    let id: u32 = c.req.param("id")?;
    let q: MyQuery = c.req.query()?;
    let body: MyBody = c.req.json().await?;
    // .form(), and with the `xml` feature, .xml()
    // .parse() picks json/form/xml based on Content-Type
    Ok(())
}

c.req.locals is a typed per-request map (AnyMap) for stashing values between middleware and handlers. c.res.locals does the same for template context.

Route Groups

let api = Router::group("/api")
    .get("/users", get_users)
    .post("/users", create_user);

let admin = Router::group("/admin")
    .middleware(require_admin)
    .get("/stats", stats);

Router::new()
    .push(api)
    .push(admin)

Features

[dependencies]
maw = { version = "X.Y", features = ["minijinja", "websocket"] }

Feature	What
minijinja	Template rendering
xml	XML request/response support
websocket	WebSocket support
static_files	Serve embedded files, with optional SPA fallback
middleware-cookie	Cookie parsing/setting (plain, signed, encrypted)
middleware-session	Session management, pluggable storage backend
middleware-csrf	CSRF protection (cookie or session backed)
middleware-logging	Request logging
middleware-catch_panic	Panic recovery, with optional custom handler
middleware-body_limit	Per-request body size limits
middleware	All middleware features
full	Everything

Check Cargo.toml for the current version. Don't copy the X.Y above literally.

Templates

MiniJinja:

let app = App::new()
    .views("templates")
    .router(Router::new()
        .get("/", async |c: &mut Ctx| {
            c.res.render("index.html");
        })
        .get("/user/{name}", async |c: &mut Ctx| {
            c.res.render_with("user.html", minijinja::context! {
                name => c.req.param_str("name")
            });
        })
    );

Static Files

Router::new().static_files("/", StaticFiles::new(Assets).fallback_to("index.html"))

fallback_to serves that file when a path doesn't match anything embedded, useful for SPAs. max_age sets Cache-Control. Last-Modified / If-Modified-Since are handled for you.

WebSocket

.ws("/ws", async |mut ws| {
    while let Some(Ok(msg)) = ws.recv().await {
        if let WsMessage::Text(txt) = msg {
            ws.send(format!("echo: {txt}")).await.ok();
        }
    }
})

Server-Sent Events

use bytes::Bytes;
use futures_util::stream;

.get("/events", async |c: &mut Ctx| {
    let stream = stream::iter([
        Ok::<Bytes, std::convert::Infallible>(Bytes::from("data: hello\n\n")),
    ]);

    // sets SSE headers, closes automatically on app shutdown
    c.res.sse(stream);
})

Errors

Return Result<T, StatusError> from a handler and Maw turns it into the right response:

async |c: &mut Ctx| -> Result<(), StatusError> {
    if !authorized {
        return Err(StatusError::forbidden());
    }
    Ok(())
}

StatusError has a constructor for every standard status code, plus .brief(), .detail(), and .error() to attach more context.

Debug Your Routes

let router = Router::new()
    .middleware(logging)
    .push(api)
    .push(admin);

println!("{router:#?}");

License

MIT