Installing Sponge

Before installing sponge, you need to install the dependencies go and protoc. You can skip this step if they are already installed.

Install Go

Requires go 1.23+ version, download from: https://studygolang.com/dl

Install protoc

Download protoc from: https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/releases/tag/v25.2

Download the appropriate protoc executable based on your system type. Move the protoc executable to a directory included in your PATH environment variable.

Install sponge

After installing go and protoc, next install sponge and its plugins. Installation is supported on Windows, Linux, Mac, and Docker environments.

Windows Environment

In the Windows environment, there are two ways to install sponge.

Method 1: Directly download the installation package (recommended)

Click to view the installation instructions.

Method 2: Manual installation

Because sponge depends on some Linux commands, you need to install git bash and make in Windows to support a Linux command environment.

✅ Install git for windows

If you have already installed git, you can skip this step.

Download git from: Git-2.44.0-64-bit.exe

After downloading, install git. Accept the default options during the installation process. After installing git, right-click in any folder (show more options). If you see the option Open Git Bash here to open a git bash terminal, it means git has been successfully installed.

To resolve garbled Chinese characters in git bash, right-click the git bash terminal, select the menu options → Text, find "character set", select UTF-8, and save.

✅ Install make

Download mingw64 from: x86_64-8.1.0-release-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0.7z

Extract the file. In the bin directory, find the mingw32-make.exe executable, copy and rename it to make.exe. Move the make.exe executable to the GOBIN directory (check go env GOBIN; if it's empty, see the GOBIN setup instructions below).

Check the make version: make -v

✅ Install sponge and its plugins

Open a git bash terminal (not the default Windows cmd).

1. Add GOBIN to the system environment variable PATH. You can skip this step if you have already set it up.

   # Set the directory for go get command to download third-party packages
   setx GOPATH "D:\YourDirectory"
   # Set the directory where go install command saves compiled executables
   setx GOBIN "D:\YourDirectory\bin"
   
   # Close the current terminal and open a new one to check the GOBIN directory
   go env GOBIN

2. Install sponge and its dependency plugins into the GOBIN directory.

   # Install sponge
   go install github.com/go-dev-frame/sponge/cmd/sponge@latest
   
   # Initialize sponge, automatically installing sponge dependency plugins
   sponge init
   
   # Check if all plugins are installed successfully. If some plugins failed to install, retry with command: sponge plugins --install
   sponge plugins
   
   # Check sponge version
   sponge -v

Linux Environment

Install sponge in a Linux environment.

1. Add $GOBIN to the system environment variable PATH. You can skip this step if you have already set it up.

   # Open the .bashrc file
   vim ~/.bashrc
   
   # Copy the following commands into .bashrc
   export GOROOT="/opt/go"     # Your go installation directory
   export GOPATH=$HOME/go      # Set the directory for go get command to download third-party packages
   export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin    # Set the directory where go install command saves compiled executables
   export PATH=$PATH:$GOBIN:$GOROOT/bin   # Add the $GOBIN directory to the system environment variable path
   
   # After saving the .bashrc file, apply the settings
   source ~/.bashrc
   
   # Check the GOBIN directory
   go env GOBIN

2. Execute commands to install sponge. Sponge and dependency plugins will be installed into the $GOBIN directory.

   # Install sponge
   go install github.com/go-dev-frame/sponge/cmd/sponge@latest
   
   # Initialize sponge, automatically installing sponge dependency plugins
   sponge init
   
   # Check if all plugins are installed successfully. If some plugins failed to install, retry with command: sponge plugins --install
   sponge plugins
   
   # Check sponge version
   sponge -v

Mac Environment

Install sponge in a Mac environment.

1. Add $GOBIN to the system environment variable PATH. You can skip this step if you have already set it up.

   # Open the .bashrc file
   vim ~/.bashrc
   
   # Copy the following commands into .bashrc
   export GOROOT="/opt/go"     # Your go installation directory
   export GOPATH=$HOME/go      # Set the directory for go get command to download third-party packages
   export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin    # Set the directory where go install command saves compiled executables
   export PATH=$PATH:$GOBIN:$GOROOT/bin   # Add the $GOBIN directory to the system environment variable path
   
   # After saving the .bashrc file, apply the settings
   source ~/.bashrc
   
   # Check the GOBIN directory
   go env GOBIN

2. Execute commands to install sponge. Sponge and dependency plugins will be installed into the $GOBIN directory.

   # Install sponge
   go install github.com/go-dev-frame/sponge/cmd/sponge@latest
   
   # Initialize sponge, automatically installing sponge dependency plugins
   sponge init
   
   # Check if all plugins are installed successfully. If some plugins failed to install, retry with command: sponge plugins --install
   sponge plugins
   
   # Check sponge version
   sponge -v

Docker Environment

Using Docker to install sponge only installs the sponge UI interface service. If you need to develop based on the generated service code, you still need to install sponge and dependency plugins locally.

Method 1: Docker start

docker run -d --name sponge -p 24631:24631 zhufuyi/sponge:latest -a http://<your_host_ip>:24631

Method 2: docker-compose start

The content of the docker-compose.yaml file is as follows:

version: "3.7"

services:
  sponge:
    image: zhufuyi/sponge:latest
    container_name: sponge
    restart: always
    command: ["-a","http://<your_host_ip>:24631"]
    ports:
      - "24631:24631"

Start the service:

docker-compose up -d

After successful deployment with Docker, access http://<your_host_ip>:24631 in your browser.

Open sponge code generation page

Sponge provides rich code generation features, and common commands are equipped with intuitive UI interfaces. This interface has the following advantages:

• Memory Function: Automatically saves historical operation records
• Detailed Explanation: Each parameter comes with an explanation
• Operation Guidance: Provides complete usage steps after generating code

Operation Steps:

1. Open a terminal and execute the following command:

   sponge run

2. Visit http://localhost:24631 in your browser to access the code generation page.

Upgrade sponge

To upgrade to the latest sponge version, execute the command:

sponge upgrade