moonmint is an HTTP web framework for Lua. Use complex routing, static file serving, and templating with a minimal code base. Harness the power of libuv to perform asynchronous operations.

Check out the wiki for more information.

Unless you really need libuv, I recommend using lua-http instead of moonmint. I do not have plans to continue maintenance of this repo, and the upstream is also abandoned.

• Simple and flexible routing
• Middleware
• Static file server
• Nonblocking operations with coroutines and libuv
• Supports PUC Lua 5.2 - 5.4, LuaJIT 2.0, LuaJIT 2.1
• Templating engine

Outside Lua, the main dependency is luv. I recommend installing it with apt if possible. If not, luarocks might work.

moonmint is really simple - probably the simplest way to get a running webserver in Lua out there!

The following example servers serve "Hello, World!" on the default port 8080.

local moonmint = require 'moonmint'
local app = moonmint()

app:get("/", 'Hello, World!')

app:start()

This can be even shorter if you use chaining.

require('moonmint')()
    :get('/', 'Hello, World!')
    :start()

moonmint depends on the luv library, a Lua binding to libuv.

Most of the code in the moonmint/deps directory is taken either from the Luvit or lit projects.

The exception is the mimetypes module whose original repo was deleted but now lives under lunarmodules.

Moonmint itself is released under the MIT license Copyright © 2015-2025 Calvin Rose and contributors

Some portions taken from Luvit/lit released under the Apache 2.0 license Copyright © 2012 The Luvit Authors.

mimetypes.lua released under the MIT license Copyright © 2011 Matthew "LeafStorm" Frazier