Is Plumego Suitable for Small Projects?

Short answer:

Yes — but not always, and not by default.

Plumego is not designed specifically for small projects,
but it can be used for them effectively
if you understand what you are trading off.

This page explains how to make that decision rationally.

The Wrong Question: “Is Plumego Too Heavy?”

Plumego is not heavy in terms of:

• Runtime overhead
• Binary size
• Dependency count
• Performance

The real cost of Plumego is cognitive, not technical.

The right question is:

“Do I benefit from explicit structure at this stage?”

What “Small Project” Actually Means

“Small” can mean many things:

• Few endpoints
• Few developers
• Short expected lifetime
• Low operational complexity
• Prototype or experiment

Only some of these argue against Plumego.

When Plumego Is a Good Fit for Small Projects

Plumego works well for small projects when:

1. The Project Is Expected to Grow

If a “small” project is likely to become:

• A long-lived internal service
• A public API
• A foundation for other systems

Then starting with Plumego can prevent painful rewrites later.

2. You Care About Architecture Early

Some teams prefer:

• Clear boundaries from day one
• Explicit wiring
• No hidden behavior

Even in small codebases,
this can reduce mistakes and refactoring cost.

3. You Value Learning and Transferable Patterns

Plumego teaches:

• Explicit control flow
• Clean separation of concerns
• Framework-agnostic architecture

These skills transfer directly to larger systems.

For learning-oriented projects, this is a feature.

4. You Want Predictability Over Speed

If correctness, clarity, and predictability matter more than
shipping the first version as fast as possible,
Plumego is reasonable even for small projects.

When Plumego Is Not a Good Fit for Small Projects

Plumego may be a poor choice when:

1. You Need to Move Extremely Fast

If your priority is:

• Hackathons
• One-off tools
• Short-lived prototypes
• Demo-only services

Then the ceremony of explicit wiring
may slow you down unnecessarily.

2. The Project Has No Growth Path

If the project is:

• Truly disposable
• Guaranteed to be short-lived
• Never going to evolve significantly

Then Plumego’s long-term benefits will never be realized.

3. The Team Is New to Go or HTTP

Plumego assumes:

• Comfort with Go
• Understanding of HTTP semantics
• Willingness to reason about control flow

For beginners, a more opinionated framework
may reduce friction.

A Concrete Comparison

Size alone is not the deciding factor.

The Hidden Cost of “Small Frameworks”

Frameworks optimized for small projects often:

• Encourage shortcuts
• Hide control flow
• Accumulate technical debt quietly

If the project grows,
those shortcuts become constraints.

Plumego avoids this by making trade-offs visible from day one.

Starting Small With Plumego

If you choose Plumego for a small project:

• Start with minimal structure
• Avoid premature layering
• Keep usecases simple
• Add boundaries only when needed

Plumego does not force complexity —
it only refuses to hide it.

A Useful Rule of Thumb

Ask yourself:

“If this project still exists in 18 months,
will I regret choosing convenience over clarity?”

If the answer is “yes” or “maybe”,
Plumego is worth considering.

If the answer is “definitely not”,
it probably isn’t.

Summary

Plumego is not about project size.

It is about time horizon and tolerance for ambiguity.

• Small and short-lived → Plumego is often unnecessary
• Small but growing → Plumego can be a strong foundation
• Large and long-lived → Plumego shines

Choosing Plumego for a small project is not wrong —
choosing it without understanding why is.

Related FAQ Pages

• Plumego vs Gin
• Why Is Plumego So Explicit?
• When Not to Use Plumego

Good framework choices are not about trends —
they are about constraints.