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zeromicro/go-zero

📈 Trending33,011GoAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5ActiveLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Go framework for building resilient microservices with built-in timeouts, rate limiting, circuit breakers, and a code generator that creates server and client code from API descriptions.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((go-zero))
    What it does
      Microservice framework
      Auto timeout management
      Rate limiting built-in
      Circuit breakers
    Code generation
      goctl tool
      HTTP server scaffolding
      Multi-platform clients
      Parameter validation
    Key features
      Load shedding
      Production-grade defaults
      Zero manual tuning
      High traffic ready
    Use cases
      Multi-service backends
      High-traffic systems
      Cross-platform APIs
      Resilient services
    Tech stack
      Go language
      CNCF landscape
      HTTP APIs
      Microservices

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build a multi-service backend system that automatically handles timeouts, rate limits, and circuit breaking without manual configuration.

USE CASE 2

Generate complete HTTP server code and iOS/Android/web clients from a single .api file definition to keep APIs in sync across platforms.

USE CASE 3

Deploy a high-traffic microservice architecture that gracefully sheds load and prevents cascading failures when dependencies fail.

USE CASE 4

Create a resilient backend for a mobile app where the server automatically validates all incoming requests and enforces rate limits.

Tech stack

GoHTTPgRPCSwiftKotlinTypeScriptJavaScriptDart

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
MIT License, use freely for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you include the original copyright notice.

In plain English

go-zero is a Go framework for building microservices, that is, backend systems made up of many small, independently running services that communicate over a network. It was created by a team that migrated a large-scale application from a traditional single-codebase architecture and needed something that could handle tens of millions of daily users reliably without constant manual tuning. The framework bundles a large collection of production-grade features directly, so developers do not have to assemble them from separate libraries. These include automatic timeout management (cancelling requests that take too long), rate limiting (preventing too many concurrent requests from overwhelming a service), circuit breakers (temporarily stopping calls to a failing dependency so problems do not cascade), and load shedding (gracefully refusing requests when the system is overloaded). All of these protective mechanisms work out of the box with sensible defaults. One of its standout features is a code generation tool called goctl. You write a simple .api file describing your HTTP endpoints, the URL paths, request parameters, and response shapes, and goctl generates the complete Go server scaffolding from that description. It can also generate client code in iOS Swift, Android Kotlin, TypeScript, JavaScript, and Dart from the same .api file. This dramatically reduces repetitive boilerplate when maintaining APIs across multiple platforms. The framework also includes built-in request parameter validation, so inputs from clients are automatically checked against the rules you specify. You would reach for go-zero when building a Go backend system with multiple services that need to be resilient and maintainable under high traffic. It fits teams who want a comprehensive, opinionated framework rather than assembling individual components themselves. The stack is pure Go, listed in the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) landscape.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to write a .api file in go-zero and generate a complete Go HTTP server with request validation from it.
Prompt 2
How do I set up circuit breakers and rate limiting in go-zero to protect my microservice from overload?
Prompt 3
Generate Swift client code from a go-zero .api file and explain how to use it in an iOS app.
Prompt 4
What are the default timeout and load-shedding settings in go-zero, and how do I customize them for my service?
Prompt 5
Walk me through creating two microservices in go-zero that communicate with each other and handle failures gracefully.
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.