Chuks v0.0.4 — The HTTP Release

Mar 13, 2026

Chuks v0.0.4 is the biggest release yet. The HTTP server gets a complete API overhaul, the testing infrastructure matures with 127 golden tests, and the toolchain gains self-update capabilities.

Highlights

Fiber-Inspired HTTP API

The HTTP server now has a rich, Express/Fiber-style API:

import { createServer } from "std/http"

function main() {
    var app = createServer()

    app.get("/users/:id", (req, res) => {
        var id = req.params.id
        var page = req.query.page

        res.status(200)
        res.header("X-Request-Id", "abc123")
        res.cookie("session", "xyz", { httpOnly: true })
        res.json({ id: id, page: page })
    })

    app.listen(8080)
}

New response methods: res.redirect(), res.type(), res.cookie(), res.clearCookie()

New request properties: req.ip, req.hostname, req.protocol, req.secure, req.originalUrl, req.cookie

Typed Request Body Parsing

Parse incoming JSON directly into a typed structure:

dataType CreateUser {
    name: string
    email: string
}

app.post("/users", (req, res) => {
    var user = req.parseBody<CreateUser>()
    res.json({ created: user.name })
})

File Uploads

Full multipart/form-data support with req.files and req.formData:

app.post("/upload", (req, res) => {
    var file = req.files[0]
    println(file.filename)   // "photo.jpg"
    println(file.extension)  // ".jpg"
    println(file.size)       // 1048576
    res.json({ uploaded: file.filename })
})

Channels

First-class communication between concurrent tasks:

import { Channel } from "std/channel"

async function producer(ch: Channel): Task<void> {
    ch.send("hello")
    ch.send("world")
    ch.close()
}

function main() {
    var ch = new Channel(10)
    spawn producer(ch)

    var msg = ch.receive()
    println(msg) // "hello"
}

Default Parameters

Functions can now have default parameter values:

function greet(name: string = "World"): string {
    return "Hello, " + name + "!"
}
println(greet())        // Hello, World!
println(greet("Chuks")) // Hello, Chuks!

Function Type Annotations

Arrow function type syntax in function signatures:

function apply(value: int, transform: (int) => int): int {
    return transform(value)
}
var result = apply(5, (x: int): int => x * 2)

Self-Update Command

chuks upgrade              # upgrade to latest
chuks upgrade 0.0.3        # install a specific version
chuks upgrade --list       # list all available versions

Downloads the correct platform binary, extracts it, and atomically replaces the current executable. Handles macOS codesign and xattr automatically.

Silent Toolchain Auto-Installer

When you run chuks build for the first time, Chuks automatically downloads and installs everything it needs. No prompts, no manual setup — it just works.

Testing Infrastructure

127 golden tests passing on both VM and AOT
60 HTTP integration tests covering routes, middleware, uploads, error handling
Tests run in parallel, comparing VM and AOT output for behavioral parity
Nondeterministic tests (timestamps, random) handled gracefully

Bug Fixes

AOT scoping: Variables declared inside if/else branches within loops now scoped correctly
TCP fragmentation: HTTP server correctly reassembles TCP segments split across network callbacks
AOT type assertions: Fixed invalid type assertions on Request.params/query struct fields
Error handling: finally block with return and throw-in-finally now behave correctly
Map access: Dot-notation access/set on maps works properly; missing keys return null
5 AOT transpiler limitations resolved (string conversion, array references, bitwise operators)

Numbers

Metric	Count
Golden tests (VM + AOT)	127
HTTP integration tests	60
AOT divergences fixed	23 → 0
New commits	25