Overview

Relevant source files

This page introduces the Solon framework: its purpose, design principles, Java compatibility, GraalVM support, and a high-level map of how its major subsystems relate to each other. For detailed treatment of individual systems, see the linked subsystem pages throughout this wiki. For bundle selection and module layout, see Module Structure and Ecosystem.

Purpose

Solon is a lightweight, high-performance Java enterprise application development framework built from scratch, independent of the Java EE (Jakarta EE) specification. It provides a modular architecture where every optional capability is implemented as a plugin.

Core characteristics:

Restrained: Minimal API surface with a small core (solon artifact ~500KB).
Efficient: Lower resource consumption (50% memory savings, 10× faster startup).
Open: Pluggable architecture with no lock-in to specific implementations.

Performance benchmarks README.md65-70 report 700% higher concurrency on TechEmpower Plaintext tests, 50% lower memory usage, 10× faster startup times, and 90% smaller deployment packages compared to traditional Java frameworks.

Sources: README.md1-71 README_EN.md1-70

Design Philosophy

Solon's architecture follows a layered design with clear separation of concerns:

Layer	Key Components	Role
Application Layer	User code, `@Controller`, `@Configuration`	Business logic and configuration
Core Framework Layer	`Solon`, `SolonApp`, `AppContext`, `SolonProps`	Application lifecycle, DI container, configuration
Request Processing Layer	`RouterHandler`, `Router`, `ChainManager`, `Context`	HTTP request routing and filtering
Extension & Plugin Layer	`Plugin`, `ExtendLoader`, `EventBus`	Dynamic extensibility and event-driven integration
Infrastructure Layer	`BeanContainer`, `MethodWrap`, `ConvertUtil`	Low-level utilities for reflection, AOP, type conversion

Core design principles:

Plugin-first extensibility — All optional capabilities are Plugin implementations loaded via discovery mechanisms solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/core/Plugin.java1-30
Annotation-driven IoC — The system processes @Component, @Bean, and @Inject to build the dependency injection container solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/SolonApp.java185-186
Context-based request pipeline — HTTP requests flow through Context objects via a pipeline of Filters and Handlers solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/core/handle/Context.java43-51

Sources: README.md55-59 README_CN.md55-59 solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/SolonApp.java61-71

Java Compatibility

Solon targets Java 8 as its minimum requirement and supports up through Java 25.

JDK Version	Status	Notes
8	Minimum baseline	Fully supported README.md23-25
11	Supported	LTS release README.md26-28
17	Supported	LTS release README.md29-31
21	Supported	LTS release README.md32-34
25	Supported	Next-gen support README.md35-37

Modern Java Support: The ecosystem includes dedicated repositories for newer Java versions, such as solon-java17 and solon-java25, to leverage modern language features while maintaining the core's Java 8 compatibility README.md88-89 Version 4.0 specifically introduced ScopeLocalJdk25 for advanced thread-local bridging UPDATE_LOG.md42 and a solon-java25 package for automatic loading UPDATE_LOG.md43

Sources: README.md23-37 README_EN.md23-37 UPDATE_LOG.md41-43 solon-parent/pom.xml21-42

GraalVM Native Image Support

Solon provides first-class native image support. It is designed to be AOT (Ahead-of-Time) friendly, avoiding excessive runtime reflection where possible. This allows Solon applications to be compiled into native executables with extremely fast startup and low memory footprints. The NativeDetector utility is used throughout the core to optimize behavior for native environments solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/core/runtime/NativeDetector.java1-30

Sources: README.md56 solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/SolonProps.java174-178 solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/Solon.java238-246

High-Level Architecture

Figure 1 — Core system architecture (layered view)

Sources: solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/SolonApp.java61-75 solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/Solon.java47-51

Figure 2 — Code Entity Space Bridge (Key Components)

Sources: solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/Solon.java142-167 solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/SolonApp.java82-155 solon/src/main/java/org/noear/solon/SolonProps.java53

Modular Architecture and Ecosystem

Solon uses a modular bundle organization. The framework is split into a core and numerous plugins across different domains.

Figure 3 — Solon Ecosystem Module Organization

Sources: README.md82-89 UPDATE_LOG.md50 solon-parent/pom.xml79-93

Major subsystem categories:

Category	Description
Core Runtime	Fundamental IoC, AOP, and lifecycle management.
Cloud Services	Abstractions for discovery, config, and events via `solon-cloud` README.md85
AI & Flow	Specialized logic for AI integrations (`solon-ai-loop`) and workflow engines UPDATE_LOG.md39-40
Build Tooling	Plugins for Maven and Gradle to facilitate AOT and packaging README.md94-95

Experimental and Community Modules:

Experimental (__hatch): Contains incubation modules such as solon-net-thrift, solon-net-avro, solon-server-netty, and solon-server-reactor-netty.
Code Style: Code style configurations are maintained in the style/ directory.
Community: Community and contribution guidelines are found in .github/ and .gitee/.

The remainder of this wiki covers these subsystems in detail:

Module Structure and Ecosystem — Explains the modular organization, solon-parent structure, and the __release aggregation strategy.
Getting Started and Build Tooling — Explains how to bootstrap applications and use build plugins.

Sources: README.md103-112 UPDATE_LOG.md32-55 solon-parent/pom.xml34-42