volt-framework 0.1.2

A lightning-fast, opinionated web framework with a high-performance Zig substrate

Volt ⚡

A lightning-fast Python web framework with a high-performance Zig substrate.

Installation

pip install volt-framework

Vision

Volt combines the simplicity and expressiveness of Python with the raw performance of Zig. Unlike traditional Python web frameworks that rely on slow WSGI/ASGI servers, Volt includes its own blazing-fast web server written in Zig - giving you production-ready performance out of the box.

Why Volt?

• Create easy SPA-like applications - Built with HTMX in mind, you can create high quality, responsive applications, without a separate frontend
• Type-safe templating - The Jinja templating you know and love, with the power to generate type safe dataclass components for template context
• Zero external dependencies for serving - No need for gunicorn, uvicorn, or other WSGI/ASGI servers
• Batteries included - Everything you need for modern web development in one package
• Performance without complexity - Write pure Python, get Zig-level speed
• Simple developer experience - One command to run, deploy, and scale

Quick Start

import os
import time

from sqlalchemy import create_engine
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session

from volt.router import Handler, HttpRequest, HttpResponse, route, middleware, run_server
from db import query

# Easily add middleware
@middleware
def logging(request: HttpRequest, handler: Handler) -> HttpResponse:
    """Add custom logging to each request"""
    start = time.time()
    response = handler(request)
    end = time.time() - start
    print(f"Request - Path: {request.path}, Time: {end * 1_000 * 1_000 }μs")
    return response

# Routes and handlers are simple to define
@route("/", method="GET")
def root(request: HttpRequest) -> HttpResponse:
    context = Home.Context(
        request=request,
        selected=NavSelected.HOME,  # HTMX Powered!
    )
    return HttpResponse(
        Home(context).render(request),
    )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_server()

Platform Support:

• ✅ Linux (x86_64)
• ✅ macOS (x86_64, ARM64)
• ❌ Windows (not yet supported)

Why Zig?

Zig is a modern systems programming language that compiles to native machine code - the same performance class as C and Rust. While Python is interpreted at runtime, Zig code runs at native CPU speed with better safety than C and simpler syntax than Rust.

You write Python. Volt handles the performance.

Performance

Traditional Python web frameworks require external servers that add overhead and complexity:

Request → nginx → gunicorn → Django/Flask → Your Code

Volt eliminates the bottleneck:

Request → Volt (Zig) → Your Code

The result? Dramatically faster request routing, static file serving, and overall throughput - all while maintaining Python's developer-friendly syntax.

Current Status

⚠️ Alpha Release - Volt is in early development. Core routing and middleware systems are functional, but this is not yet production-ready.

Working:

• HTTP server and request routing
• Custom middleware support
• Header handling
• HTTP/1 and HTTP/1.1
• Static file serving
• Built-in templating engine

Coming Soon:

• ORM integration
• Advanced middleware (CSRF, CORS, etc.)
• Production deployment tools

Philosophy

Volt is opinionated by design. Like Django, we believe in convention over configuration, but we take it further - why should you need to choose and configure a separate web server? Why should performance require switching languages or adding complexity?

Volt gives you the full stack in one package, optimized from the ground up.

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Volt is in active development. Star this repo to follow progress.