Welcome to Arcade

What is Arcade?

Arcade is a minimal web framework for Dart that brings the simplicity and familiarity of Express.js to the Dart ecosystem. It provides a clean, intuitive API for building web applications and APIs while leveraging Dart’s strong typing and performance.

Key Features

Express-like API

Familiar routing patterns and hook system that feels right at home for Express.js developers

Type Safety

Full type safety with Dart’s strong typing system, catching errors at compile time

WebSocket Support

Built-in WebSocket support for real-time applications with a clean, simple API

Minimal Core

Lightweight core that doesn’t impose opinions, letting you structure your app your way

Quick Example

import 'package:arcade/arcade.dart';

void main() async {
  await runServer(
    port: 3000,
    init: () {
      route.get('/').handle((context) => 'Hello, World!');

      route.get('/users/:id').handle((context) {
        final userId = context.pathParameters['id'];
        return {'userId': userId, 'name': 'John Doe'};
      });

      route.post('/users')
        .before((context) {
          // Run authentication check before handler
          print('Authenticating user...');
          return context;
        })
        .handle((context) async {
          final body = await context.jsonMap();
          // Handle user creation
          return {'created': true, 'user': body.value};
        })
        .after((context, result) {
          // Log after handler completes
          print('User created successfully');
          return (context, result);
        });
    },
  );
}

Why Arcade?

Familiar API

If you’ve used Express.js, you’ll feel right at home. Arcade brings the same intuitive routing patterns to Dart.

Production Ready

Built with real-world applications in mind, Arcade includes features like:

• Comprehensive error handling
• Static file serving
• Body parsing (JSON, form data, multipart)
• Path parameters and query strings
• Before/after hooks for request processing

Extensible

Arcade’s minimal core is designed to be extended. Use it standalone for simple applications, or combine it with dependency injection frameworks like Injectable for larger projects.

Great Developer Experience

• Hot reload support in development
• Clear error messages
• Comprehensive logging
• TypeScript-like type safety

Ecosystem

Arcade comes with a growing ecosystem of packages:

• arcade_cli - CLI tools for development
• arcade_logger - Structured logging
• arcade_config - Configuration management
• arcade_cache - Caching utilities
• arcade_swagger - OpenAPI documentation generation
• arcade_views - Template rendering

Getting Help

• 📖 Read the documentation
• 💬 Join the community discussions on GitHub
• 🐛 Report issues on GitHub
• ⭐ Star the project on GitHub

Ready to dive in?

Check out the Getting Started guide to create your first Arcade application!