rust-web-server 17.16.0

Static file web server and HTTP toolkit written in Rust. Supports HTTP/3, HTTP/2, and HTTP/1.1. HTTP/3 and HTTP/2 require a TLS certificate; without one the server falls back to plain HTTP/1.1 automatically.
Documentation

rws

Static file web server and HTTP toolkit written in Rust. Supports HTTP/3, HTTP/2, and HTTP/1.1. HTTP/3 and HTTP/2 require a TLS certificate; without one the server falls back to plain HTTP/1.1 automatically.

Use it as a ready-to-run binary or pull it in as a library crate to get battle-tested building blocks — request/response parsing, routing, headers, MIME detection, body parsing, JSON, logging — without taking on a full async framework.

Install

cargo install rust-web-server

This installs the rws binary with HTTP/3, HTTP/2, and TLS support included.

Run

Plain HTTP/1.1

rws

Starts on http://127.0.0.1:7878 by default. Place your files in the working directory and open the URL in a browser.

HTTPS + HTTP/2 + HTTP/3

Generate a self-signed certificate for local development:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out cert.pem -days 365 -nodes \
  -subj "/CN=localhost" -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:localhost,IP:127.0.0.1"

Start the server with the certificate:

rws --tls-cert-file=cert.pem --tls-key-file=key.pem

Open https://127.0.0.1:7878 in a browser. The server listens on the same port for both TCP (HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 via ALPN) and UDP (HTTP/3 via QUIC). HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 are negotiated automatically — no extra configuration needed.

For a public domain, obtain a certificate from Let's Encrypt.

Custom address and port

rws --ip=0.0.0.0 --port=443 --tls-cert-file=cert.pem --tls-key-file=key.pem

See CONFIGURE for all configuration options (env vars, config file, command-line flags).

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/bohdaq/rust-web-server.git
cd rust-web-server
cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/rws.

To build with HTTP/2 only (no QUIC/HTTP/3):

cargo build --release --no-default-features --features http2

To build HTTP/1.1 only (smallest binary, no TLS):

cargo build --release --no-default-features --features http1

Features

  • HTTP/3 over QUIC (UDP) — negotiated via Alt-Svc
  • HTTP/2 with ALPN negotiation alongside HTTP/1.1 on the same TCP port
  • TLS via rustls (aws-lc-rs backend, no OpenSSL)
  • HTTP/1.1 keep-alive — persistent connections; Connection: close or idle timeout ends the session
  • Response compression — automatic gzip for text types when client sends Accept-Encoding: gzip
  • Large file streaming — chunked transfer for files > 8 MB; no full-file buffering
  • HTTP → HTTPS redirect — set RWS_CONFIG_HTTP_REDIRECT_PORT to redirect a plain-HTTP port
  • Cookie handling — CookieJar parses the Cookie header; SetCookie builder creates Set-Cookie values
  • CORS — allowed for all origins by default, fully configurable
  • HTTP Range Requests — partial file serving and multi-range responses
  • HTTP Client Hints
  • ETag and 304 Not Modified — conditional requests skip body transfer on cache hit
  • Security headers — Strict-Transport-Security (HTTPS only), Content-Security-Policy (configurable via RWS_CONFIG_CSP), Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options
  • WebAssembly MIME type — .wasm files served as application/wasm
  • Combined Log Format (CLF) — access log compatible with GoAccess and AWStats; set RWS_CONFIG_LOG_FORMAT=json for structured JSON logs
  • Graceful shutdown — Ctrl+C and SIGTERM stop the server cleanly (async/TLS paths); /readyz returns 503 during drain
  • Kubernetes-ready — health probes (GET /healthz liveness, GET /readyz readiness), Prometheus metrics (GET /metrics), 0.0.0.0 default bind, Dockerfile included
  • Dynamic routing — standalone Router with :param and *wildcard path matching
  • Typed errors — IntoResponse trait and built-in AppError mapping to HTTP status codes
  • Typed request extractors — FromRequest trait; built-in Body, BodyText, Query, RequestHeaders
  • Per-IP rate limiting — sliding-window RateLimiter; configurable via env vars
  • In-process test client — TestClient dispatches requests without a TCP socket
  • WebSocket support — RFC 6455 handshake, frame encode/decode, SHA-1 + base64 built in, no extra dependency
  • Shared application state — App::with_state(S) shares Arc<S> across state-aware route handlers
  • Middleware pipeline — App::new().wrap(layer) stacks composable Middleware layers; built-in RateLimitLayer included
  • Async handlers — App::with_async_state(S) gives route handlers an async fn signature (http2 feature, tokio-backed)
  • Server-Sent Events — Sse builder produces a buffered text/event-stream response with correct headers
  • Session management — SessionStore thread-safe in-memory sessions with TTL; cookie helpers included
  • Serde JSON — Json<T> extractor and responder backed by serde_json (features = ["serde"])
  • Auth middleware — BasicAuthLayer (HTTP Basic) and JwtLayer (HS256 JWT) (features = ["auth"])
  • IP filter — IpFilter::allow([...]) / IpFilter::deny([...]) middleware; accepts exact IPv4 addresses and CIDR ranges
  • Graceful shutdown — Ctrl+C and SIGTERM drain in-flight connections on all server paths
  • 30-second read timeout per request on plain HTTP/1.1 connections
  • Symlink resolution
  • .html extension inference — /page serves page.html; /dir serves dir/index.html
  • Custom 404 page — place a 404.html in the working directory to override the default

Use as a library

Add the crate to Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
rust-web-server = "17"

Implement a controller and plug it into the server in a few lines:

use rust_web_server::controller::Controller;
use rust_web_server::request::{METHOD, Request};
use rust_web_server::response::{Response, STATUS_CODE_REASON_PHRASE};
use rust_web_server::range::Range;
use rust_web_server::mime_type::MimeType;
use rust_web_server::server::ConnectionInfo;

pub struct PingController;

impl Controller for PingController {
    fn is_matching(request: &Request, _: &ConnectionInfo) -> bool {
        request.method == METHOD.get && request.request_uri == "/ping"
    }

    fn process(_: &Request, mut response: Response, _: &ConnectionInfo) -> Response {
        response.status_code = *STATUS_CODE_REASON_PHRASE.n200_ok.status_code;
        response.reason_phrase = STATUS_CODE_REASON_PHRASE.n200_ok.reason_phrase.to_string();
        response.content_range_list = vec![
            Range::get_content_range(b"pong".to_vec(), MimeType::TEXT_PLAIN.to_string())
        ];
        response
    }
}

See DEVELOPER for the full building blocks reference and 21 use case examples covering JSON responses, query parameters, form and file upload parsing, redirects, typed errors, typed extractors, rate limiting, testing, WebSocket connections, shared state, and middleware.

AI adoption

This framework is designed to be an AI first class citizen — AI coding assistants (Claude, Cursor, Copilot) generate correct, idiomatic, compiling code on the first try.

See AI_ADOPTION.md for the full strategy: using the server as an AI API backend, adding SSE streaming for token-by-token output, implementing an MCP tool server, and the steps to make the framework maximally discoverable by AI tools (llms.txt, Cargo examples, ergonomic helpers, system prompt file).

Further reading

  • CONFIGURE — all configuration options
  • FAQ — common problems and solutions
  • DEVELOPER — building blocks, use cases, building, and testing
  • src/README.md — module-level documentation
  • AI_ADOPTION.md — AI adoption strategy and roadmap

License

MIT