writeonce-framework
A web framework written in writeonce, consumed as a [deps] dependency
(iteration 15). Spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-08-18-web-framework-design.md §B.
[deps]
writeonce-framework = { git = "https://github.com/shoneyj/writeonce-framework", rev = "v0.1.0" }
What it is
- HTTP/1.1 server core: request parsing (
Content-Length
bodies, %-decoded paths and query strings), response serialization, a
blocking serve loop that answers 400 to malformed requests, 500 to
trapping handlers (and survives), closes every fd, and honors SIGTERM.
Connection policy: pipelined requests are served on one connection;
idle connections close after the response — on a single-threaded server
a parked keep-alive connection would block accept and starve every
other client, so closing is the correct shape until fiber-per-connection
serving lands (the arc — 8/11 — landed 2026-08-21; the serve-loop slice
that consumes it is iteration 24's).
A proxy in front simply reconnects.
- Router (
router/): method + path table with :param captures into
req.params; first match wins; a known path with the wrong method is
405 with the Allow header (registration order); no matching path is
the framework's 404. HEAD is served free: routed as GET, body
suppressed, Content-Length still names the body a GET would carry.
- Registration helpers:
app.get/post/put/delete_(pattern, handler)
push the route for you (delete_ because delete is the query
keyword); app.add(Route { ... }) stays for anything else. A
request-line Logging middleware ships in router/, and
set_header(resp, name, value) is the escape hatch for headers the
builders don't set.
- Handlers without closures: the language has no function values by
doctrine, so a route handler is a class satisfying the
Handler interface
(fn handle(req: Req) -> Resp), dispatched structurally — a
non-conforming handler is a compile error (WO-E205). Middleware is its own
interface (fn before(req: Req) -> ?Resp; nil = continue, a Resp
short-circuits).
- Auth mechanism in core (
http/auth.wo): Authorization header
parsing (scheme split, case-insensitive), pure-.wo base64, a
constant-time comparator (ct_eq, no early exit), and the blessed
principal slot — req.principal is "" until an auth middleware
authenticates, then downstream handlers read who it is. BearerAuth
and BasicAuth (with the WWW-Authenticate challenge) ship as
middlewares; POLICY — which routes, which users, where secrets live —
stays in the app, on top of bearer_token/basic_credentials/ct_eq.
- Data layer for free: handlers use
@table + the query surface
directly — durable, compiler-checked persistence in the same binary. No
ORM, no database server.
Honest limits (v1, all deliberate)
- Single-threaded, blocking — one request at a time. Concurrency arrives
underneath this same surface now that the arc (8/11) has landed
(2026-08-21); the switch itself rides iteration 24's serving slice.
- TLS: none, anywhere. Deploy behind nginx/caddy; the proxy terminates
TLS+ALPN and gives browsers HTTP/2 while this backend speaks HTTP/1.1
keep-alive. See the web-app sample's README for the nginx sketch.
Content-Length bodies only (no chunked encoding), no WebSockets/SSE,
JSON-first (no templates). Form-encoded bodies parse through
form_values(req) (+ and %XX decoded, nil on any other
content-type); multipart/form-data through multipart_parts(req)
(whole-body, bounded by BODY_MAX — the arc landed 2026-08-21;
streaming uploads stay parked until their own slice) with
part_named for fields; media_type(req) names
the body's media type for content negotiation.
The v1 surface — status ledger (2026-08-22)
The target surface of framework v1, tracked per item. The memory-rich
features (TTL cache, feature flags, durable job queue, transaction { })
are framework v2 — iteration 18, spec written, NOT part of v1.
Legend: ✅ shipped · 🔶 partial (gap named) · ⬜ candidate slice ·
⏸ parked behind a runtime iteration · 🔧 needs a runtime/compiler seam
first (pure .wo cannot express it yet).
Transport
| Item |
State |
| HTTP/1.1 parsing |
🔶 parses + 400-and-survive; STRICT ambiguity rejection (duplicate/conflicting Content-Length, oversize checks beyond BODY_MAX) not audited — hardening slice |
| Keep-alive |
✅ pipelined-serve / close-when-idle (arc landed 2026-08-21; retirement of close-when-idle rides iteration 24's fiber-per-connection slice) |
| Read/write/idle timeouts |
🔧 net has no timeout surface — story 35 owns the seam (park_deadline infra already exists for sleeps), then a framework knob |
| Request size limits |
✅ BODY_MAX bounds headers AND body |
| Unix socket binding |
🔧 net.listen is TCP-only — story 35 owns the seam |
| Graceful SIGTERM |
✅ in-flight request completes (blocking model), listener + fds closed, storage is per-commit durable (WAL fdatasync — nothing to checkpoint) |
Routing
| Item |
State |
| Path matching |
🔶 linear scan, first-match-wins; a radix tree waits on a MEASUREMENT first — 22's harness landed (benched the DB, not the router); needs a perf-targets register entry |
Method dispatch · path params · 404 · 405+Allow |
✅ |
| Wildcards |
⬜ only :param today; *rest capture is a candidate slice |
| Precedence rules |
🔶 registration order IS the rule (documented); specificity-based precedence unneeded until wildcards exist |
| Route groups |
⬜ candidate slice (prefix + per-group middleware) |
Request/response
| Item |
State |
| Case-insensitive headers · query parsing |
✅ (names lowercased on read) |
| JSON · form-urlencoded · multipart |
✅ all three hooks (json.decode, form_values, multipart_parts) |
| Content negotiation |
🔶 media_type(req) covers the request side; Accept-driven response negotiation ⬜ |
| Trusted-proxy client IP |
🔶 X-Forwarded-For/-Proto parsing is expressible (candidate slice); VERIFYING the peer is the trusted proxy needs a peer-address seam 🔧 — story 35 owns it |
| Status/header setting · redirects |
✅ builders + set_header |
| Lazy body streaming + backpressure · streaming responses · explicit commit point |
⏸ UNBLOCKED by the arc (8/11 landed 2026-08-21) — stays parked until its own slice |
| ETag + conditional requests |
⬜ candidate; wants story 34's digests (bitwise landed with 36 — pure-.wo vs C-builtin is 34's brainstorm) |
Context & middleware
| Item |
State |
| Ordered middleware chain |
✅ registration order, ?Resp short-circuits |
| Request-scoped context |
🔶 req.params + req.principal are the context today; a general req.ctx bag is a candidate slice |
| Guaranteed teardown |
🔶 every fd closes on every path (gate-proven); no user teardown hooks yet |
| Cancellation into pending storage ops |
⏸ UNBLOCKED by the arc (8/11 landed 2026-08-21) — stays parked until its own slice |
| Panic recovery |
🔶 trap = 500 and the server survives ✅; "rolls back the transaction" is framework v2 (needs transaction { }, iteration 18) |
Storage integration (the differentiator — framework v2 territory)
| Item |
State |
| Transaction-per-request middleware (commit on 2xx, roll back otherwise) |
⏸ v2 — needs iteration 18's transaction { } |
| Cancellation → rollback |
⏸ arc landed; still needs v2's transaction { } (iteration 18) |
| Migration generation + review workflow |
⬜ recorded future story (script-based destructive migrations) |
| Eager-loading API (N+1) |
⬜ query-surface work (9-series), not framework code |
| Tenant-scoped query roots |
⬜ future; wants the query surface to grow scoped roots first |
Security
| Item |
State |
| Constant-time comparison · Authorization parsing · Basic auth · principal |
✅ http/auth.wo, req.principal |
| CORS |
⬜ candidate slice (middleware + preflight answers) |
| Security headers |
⬜ candidate slice (one middleware, a header set) |
| Host validation |
⬜ candidate slice (middleware against a host allowlist) |
| Strict parsing |
🔶 same item as Transport's hardening slice |
Crypto (self-written, hard-stop after JWT HS256)
| Item |
State |
| base64 |
✅ pure .wo (http/auth.wo) |
| SHA-256 · SHA-512 · HMAC · CRC32 |
🔧 the language has NO bitwise operators — these are C runtime builtins (libc-only doctrine permits hand-rolled crypto in the runtime) or the language grows bit ops first; the fork goes to a brainstorm before the slice |
| Unlocks (signed cookies, CSRF, session integrity, webhook verification, JWT HS256) |
⬜ framework slices AFTER the hash primitives exist; hard stop there — no RS256, no JOSE zoo |
Layout and privacy (iteration 17)
This project declares kind = "library" in wo.toml, so woc <dir> runs the
FULL pipeline over it — parse, typecheck, interface satisfaction, ownership, GC
inference — with no fn main required, and writes nothing. That retired
iteration 16's woc --emit verification workaround. woc build on it fails
naming the kind, unless a demo main is added (lib+bin is allowed).
http/ — the public surface: Req/Resp and the response builders
(types.wo), auth (auth.wo), multipart (multipart.wo), and the
body-inspection pair media_type/form_values (form.wo).router/ — the route table and Logging.app.wo — App, the registration helpers, the dispatch loop.internal/ — not importable by a consumer. The connection-level request
parser and carry-state record (parse.wo) and the serve loop, status text,
and response serializer (serve.wo) live here. A consuming app that writes
use writeonce-framework/internal gets WO-E108 at that use. The rule
is Go's: a path segment named internal is refused across the [deps]
boundary only — the framework's own modules import it freely.
One honest disclosure: privacy restricts NAMING, not code size. internal/
modules still compile into the consumer's single image (there is no dead-code
elimination); a consumer simply cannot name them.
The consuming sample
docs/examples/web-app — a small storefront importing this framework
through [deps]. Its acceptance (just web-app) exercises the whole chain:
fetch → lock → build → serve → durable restart.
shoney.arickathil
29458312da