wtf is fastify?

Fastify is a web framework that lets you build fast, efficient servers using Node.js. Think of it as the foundation for APIs, websites, or any web service, it handles incoming requests and sends back responses. The main benefit is speed: it can handle tens of thousands of requests per second with minimal overhead, which means your infrastructure costs stay low and your users experience snappy responses. The framework works by letting you define routes (like "when someone visits /home, do this") and then it automatically manages the incoming traffic. You write your logic in JavaScript, and Fastify handles the heavy lifting underneath. It's designed to be simple for beginners but powerful enough for complex applications. You can start a basic server with just a handful of lines of code, define a route, tell it to listen on a port, and you're running. Who uses this? Anyone building a Node.js backend, whether it's a startup building their first API, a team running a production service, or a developer who wants something faster and lighter than older frameworks like Express. It's also useful if you care about performance benchmarks: according to the README, it can serve roughly 79,000 requests per second compared to Express's 16,000, which matters when you're scaling to handle lots of users. What makes this project notable is its focus on not forcing you into a single way of building things. You can use plugins to extend it, add validation rules using schemas, and hook into different stages of request processing. The project also emphasizes good logging built-in and TypeScript support, so it works well whether you're writing plain JavaScript or using stricter type definitions. It's backed by an established community and maintained by a dedicated team.