Most Zig web content stops at a router. You get a way to match a path and write a response, then you are on your own for databases, queues, auth, and observability.

Zero takes the opposite stance. It is a framework that already wired those things in, and it turns them on through configuration instead of code.

This post walks through what zero is, how it is built, and what using it actually looks like. Everything below was run on Zig 0.16.0.

Why a framework and why Zig

Zig is a systems language with no garbage collector and no hidden runtime. You control memory by hand, the compiler helps you stay safe, and the result is a native binary with predictable latency. The tradeoff has been the ecosystem.…