I've been working on a new approach to web development that lets you build responsive web applications entirely in Go using WebAssembly. I'm excited to share the gofred ecosystem with the community, though I should mention it's still very much in early development with lots of work ahead.

What is gofred?

Gofred is a Go library that compiles to WebAssembly and runs directly in the browser. Instead of writing JavaScript, you write pure Go code and get a small set of primitives for layout, components, routing, and events.

Key features:

WASM-first: Compile Go to WebAssembly and run directly in the browser

Composable widgets: container, row, column, text, image, button, and more

Routing and navigation: Lightweight router and navigation helpers

Responsive layout: Breakpoints and spacing utilities

Hot reload development: Built-in dev server with WebSocket support

Links:

https://gofred.io/ - Official website, live documentation and examples

https://github.com/gofred-io/gofred - The core library (MIT licensed)

https://github.com/gofred-io/gofred-cli - Command-line tool for creating and running apps with hot reload

https://github.com/gofred-io/gofred-website - Website source code

Why I built this:

I wanted to explore what's possible when you treat Go as a first-class language for web development. The result is a small, focused library that gives you the power of Go's type system and tooling while running in the browser.

Current status:

- Core library is stable and MIT licensed

- CLI tool supports cross-platform builds (Windows, macOS, Linux) - Hot reload development server

- Comprehensive documentation - Still under heavy development - there's a lot to do and many features are planned

What's coming:

This is very much a work in progress. I'm actively working on expanding the widget library, improving performance, adding more layout primitives, and building out the developer experience. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I wanted to share the current state and get feedback from the community.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback! What do you think about using Go for frontend development?

Submissions

Show HN: Gofred – Build responsive web apps in Go with WebAssembly

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