Application Types

Sword distinguishes between two types of applications to suit your needs.

Web App

The Web App is based on Axum and is built using these feature flags:

• web: Enables HTTP controllers. Requires importing sword::web::*.
• socketio: Enables real-time controllers. Requires importing sword::socketio::*.

You can choose one or both, depending on whether you want to build a traditional web application or a real-time application with Socket.IO.

gRPC App

The gRPC App corresponds to:

• grpc: Enables gRPC controllers based on tonic. Requires importing sword::grpc::*.

Sword uses tonic as its gRPC runtime and integrates:

• Module-based controller registration.
• Async interceptors (OnRequest, OnRequestWithConfig).
• Health service (grpc.health.v1.Health) enabled by default.
• Optional reflection via enable-tonic-reflection.
• Message limits via [grpc.body-limit].

Complementary Feature Flags

The following flags do not define an application type but provide additional functionality:

• multipart
• validation-validator
• hot-reload

Configuration

The Application Configuration page documents the [application] section for both runtimes (Web and gRPC).