Getting Started

httpx.zig is a modern, feature-rich HTTP library for the Zig programming language. It is designed to be production-ready, supporting robust client and server implementations with focus on performance and developer experience.

Features

• Protocol Support: Production-ready HTTP/1.0/1.1/2/3 client/server runtime paths plus full HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 protocol primitives.
• Cross-Platform: Validated on Linux, Windows, and macOS with x86_64, aarch64, and x86 architectures.
• Client:
  • Connection pooling and keep-alive.
  • Automatic retries with exponential backoff.
  • Request/Response interceptors.
  • Cookie management.
  • Optional chainable config/option builders (ClientConfig.defaults().with..., RequestOptions.defaults().with...) when you want explicit overrides.
• Server:
  • Pattern-based routing.
  • Middleware architecture.
  • Static file serving.
  • JSON helpers.
• Concurrency: Built-in thread pool and async primitives (all, any, race).
• Security: Custom TLS 1.2/1.3 implementation with ALPN negotiation, ECDSA certificate verification, and custom CA handling.
• Explicit Root Helpers: Top-level aliases for requests (fetch/send/...), concurrency (first/fastest/settled), networking (resolveAddress, parseAndResolveAddress, netInit/netDeinit), and MIME detection (mimeTypeFromPath, mimeTypeFromPathOr, mimeTypeFromPathWith) with external mapping support via MimeMapping.

Custom HTTP/2 & HTTP/3 Implementation

Zig's standard library does not provide HTTP/2, HTTP/3, or QUIC support. httpx.zig implements these protocols entirely from scratch, including HPACK (RFC 7541), QPACK (RFC 9204), HTTP/2 framing (RFC 7540), and QUIC transport (RFC 9000).

Requirements

• Zig Version: 0.16.0 or later
• Operating System: Windows, Linux, or macOS

v0.1.5 release and Zig 0.15 deprecation

v0.1.5 is the current release and targets Zig 0.16.0+. v0.1.2 is the previous stable release for the immediate prior 0.1.x line. Zig 0.15 support is legacy and remains available only through 0.0.7. The HTTPS/TLS reader fix for Zig 0.16 empty-buffer reads is included in this release. If you are upgrading from 0.0.7, review the GitHub Releases page for migration notes.

Platform Support

Operating Systems

Platform	Status	Notes
Linux	✅ Full	All major distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.)
Windows	✅ Full	Windows 10/11, Server 2019+
macOS	✅ Full	macOS 11+ (Big Sur and later)

Architectures

Architecture	Linux	Windows	macOS	Notes
x86_64 (64-bit)	✅	✅	✅	Primary development target
aarch64 (ARM64)	✅	✅	✅	Apple Silicon, AWS Graviton, Raspberry Pi 4+
x86 (32-bit)	✅	✅	❌	Legacy x86 support on Linux/Windows

Cross-Compilation

Zig's built-in cross-compilation makes it easy to build for any target:

# Build for Linux x86_64
zig build -Dtarget=x86_64-linux

# Build for Linux ARM64
zig build -Dtarget=aarch64-linux

# Build for Windows x86_64
zig build -Dtarget=x86_64-windows

# Build for Windows x86 (32-bit)
zig build -Dtarget=x86-windows

# Build for macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon)
zig build -Dtarget=aarch64-macos

# Build for macOS x86_64 (Intel)
zig build -Dtarget=x86_64-macos

Next Steps

• Check out the Installation guide to add httpx.zig to your project.
• Learn how to make Basic Requests with the client.
• Set up a simple Server.
• Explore HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 protocol support.
• Review API Overview for explicit root exports and aliases.