New to Chirp? This section is the why and the how it works. Skim it to decide whether Chirp fits your project, then jump to [Get Started] when you're ready to build. Evaluators want Philosophy, When to Use Chirp, and Non-Goals; deep-divers want Architecture and Thread Safety.
Design principles
The instincts that shape every decision.
The bright lines
What the core won't do — and the honest alternative for each.
Three-layer design
Surface, core, and engine layers.
Chirp vs Flask vs FastAPI vs Django
When to use what, and why Chirp exists as a framework for HTML over the wire.
Free-threading patterns
How Chirp makes data races structurally impossible.
The Bengal stack
The seven projects in the Bengal stack Chirp builds on.
The framework mental model
How return values, freezing, configuration, and contracts fit together.