zerocfg
A Go configuration library with a flag-like API that supports YAML, environment variables, and CLI arguments with zero boilerplate.
What is zerocfg?
ZeroCfg is a Go configuration library that provides a flag-like API for managing application settings with support for YAML, environment variables, and command-line arguments. It solves the problem of configuration boilerplate by offering a declarative approach with automatic value resolution and early error detection.
Go developers building applications that require flexible configuration management across multiple environments without repetitive code.
Developers choose ZeroCfg for its elegant API that mirrors Go's flag package while adding modern features like YAML support, secret protection, and multi-source priority resolution—all with zero boilerplate.
Overview
Zero-effort, concise configuration management that avoids boilerplate and repetitive actions.
Use Cases
Best For
- Go applications needing YAML configuration with CLI overrides
- Projects wanting flag-like simplicity with environment variable support
- Teams requiring strict configuration validation and early error detection
- Services that must protect sensitive configuration values in logs
- Applications with hierarchical configuration structures
- Developers tired of writing repetitive configuration parsing code
Not Ideal For
- Applications that need to dynamically add or modify configuration options at runtime (e.g., plugin-based systems)
- Projects requiring flexible, conditional priority overrides where lower sources might need to trump higher ones
- Teams already invested in comprehensive configuration libraries like Viper that support JSON, TOML, or remote sources out-of-the-box
Pros & Cons
Pros
The API is directly inspired by Go's standard flag package, making it intuitive for developers familiar with Go's ecosystem and reducing the learning curve.
Automatically loads configuration from CLI, environment variables, and YAML files with a strict hierarchy (CLI highest, defaults lowest), ensuring predictable value resolution.
Catches mistyped configuration keys at parse time by default, preventing runtime issues from typos and enforcing clean configuration patterns.
Masks sensitive values marked with zfg.Secret() when rendering configuration via zfg.Show(), reducing the risk of accidental exposure in logs.
Cons
Options must be registered at import time, prohibiting runtime addition—a limitation for modular applications or systems with plugin architectures.
Only YAML is supported for file-based configuration by default; adding JSON or TOML requires implementing custom providers, unlike more feature-rich alternatives.
Unknown configuration keys cause errors by default, which can be overly strict for environments with optional or evolving configs, even though ignoring them is possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
viperGo configuration with fangs
godotenvA Go port of Ruby's dotenv library (Loads environment variables from .env files)
sonicA blazingly fast JSON serializing & deserializing library
envA simple, zero-dependencies library to parse environment variables into structs
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.