Wildcard Routes

Wildcard routes capture the remaining unmatched part of the URL path.

They are useful for:

• static file serving
• frontend SPA routing
• mounted applications
• reverse proxies
• catch-all handlers
• nested services
• asset delivery

Wildcard matching allows a route to handle an entire URL branch instead of a single fixed path.

Basic Wildcard Syntax

Wildcard routes use the * syntax.

Example:

r.GET("/files/*", func(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request, ctx *router.Context) {
	w.Write([]byte(req.URL.Path))
})

Example requests:

/files/report.pdf
/files/images/logo.png
/files/archive/2026/05/data.json

All requests beginning with:

/files/

are matched by the same handler.

Example

package main

import (
	"net/http"

	"github.com/netlifeguru/router"
)

func main() {
	r := router.New()

	r.GET("/files/*", func(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request, ctx *router.Context) {
		w.Write([]byte(req.URL.Path))
	})

	r.ListenAndServe(":8000")
}

Request:

/files/images/logo.png

Response:

/files/images/logo.png

Wildcards with Mount

Wildcards are commonly used together with mounted handlers.

Example:

r.Mount("/assets/*", http.FileServer(http.Dir("./public")))

This forwards all requests under:

/assets/

to the mounted file server.

Examples:

/assets/style.css
/assets/js/app.js
/assets/images/logo.png

This pattern is commonly used for:

• static assets
• frontend applications
• Swagger UI
• GraphQL playgrounds
• mounted services
• reverse proxies

Wildcards with MountFunc

Wildcard routes also work with MountFunc.

r.MountFunc("/services/*", func(w http.ResponseWriter, req *http.Request) {
	w.Write([]byte(req.URL.Path))
})

This allows standard net/http handlers to process entire URL branches.

SPA Frontend Routing

Wildcard routes are useful for Single Page Applications.

Example:

r.Mount("/app/*", http.FileServer(http.Dir("./frontend")))

Requests such as:

/app/dashboard
/app/settings/profile
/app/users/42

can all be handled by the mounted frontend application.

Wildcard Matching Behavior

Wildcards always match the remaining path after the route prefix.

Example route:

/files/*

Matches:

/files/a.txt
/files/images/logo.png
/files/archive/2026/report.pdf

Does not match:

/file/test.txt

because the prefix differs.

Notes

Wildcard routes are designed for branch-style routing where an entire subtree of URLs should be handled by the same handler.

For single dynamic segments, prefer parameterized routes:

/users/{id}

instead of:

/users/*

This keeps route matching more explicit and easier to maintain.