# Kreuzberg
High-performance document intelligence for Go backed by the Rust core that powers every Kreuzberg binding.
> **Version 5.0.0-rc.3**
> Report issues at [github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/issues).
## What This Package Provides
- **Go module over the Rust core** — context-aware extraction with Go structs and errors.
- **Structured results** — text, tables, images, metadata, language detection, chunks, and warnings.
- **Static-link workflow** — build against `kreuzberg-ffi` and ship a self-contained Go binary.
- **Cross-binding parity** — output matches the Python, Node.js, Ruby, Java, .NET, PHP, Elixir, R, Dart, Swift, Zig, WASM, and C FFI packages.
## Install
Kreuzberg Go binaries are **statically linked** — once built, they are self-contained and require no runtime library dependencies. Only the static library is needed at build time.
### Quick Start (Monorepo Development)
For development in the Kreuzberg monorepo:
```bash
# Build the static FFI library
cargo build -p kreuzberg-ffi --release
# Go build will automatically link against the static library
# (from target/release/libkreuzberg_ffi.a)
cd packages/go/v5
go build -v
# Run your binary (no library path needed - it's statically linked)
./v4
```
That's it! The resulting binary is self-contained and has no runtime dependencies on Kreuzberg libraries.
### Using Go Modules
To use this package via `go get`:
```bash
# Get the latest release
go get github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/v5@latest
# Or a specific version
go get github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/v5@v5.0.0-rc.3
```
You'll need to provide the static library at build time. See [Building with Static Libraries](#building-with-static-libraries) below.
### Building with Static Libraries
When building outside the Kreuzberg monorepo, you need to provide the static library (`.a` file on Unix, `.lib` on Windows).
#### Option 1: Download Pre-built Static Library
Download the static library for your platform from [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/releases):
```bash
# Example: Linux x86_64
curl -LO https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/releases/download/v5.0.0-rc.3/go-ffi-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf go-ffi-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
# Copy to a permanent location
mkdir -p ~/kreuzberg/lib
cp kreuzberg-ffi/lib/libkreuzberg_ffi.a ~/kreuzberg/lib/
```
Then build with `CGO_LDFLAGS`:
```bash
# Linux/macOS
CGO_LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/kreuzberg/lib -lkreuzberg_ffi" go build
# Windows (MSVC)
set CGO_LDFLAGS=-L%USERPROFILE%\kreuzberg\lib -lkreuzberg_ffi
go build
```
#### Option 2: Build Static Library Yourself
If pre-built libraries aren't available for your platform:
```bash
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg.git
cd kreuzberg
# Build the static library
cargo build -p kreuzberg-ffi --release
# The static library is now at: target/release/libkreuzberg_ffi.a
# Copy it to a permanent location
mkdir -p ~/kreuzberg/lib
cp target/release/libkreuzberg_ffi.a ~/kreuzberg/lib/
# Now you can build Go projects
cd ~/my-go-project
CGO_LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/kreuzberg/lib -lkreuzberg_ffi" go build
```
### System Requirements
#### ONNX Runtime (for embeddings)
If using embeddings functionality, ONNX Runtime must be installed **at build time**:
```bash
# macOS
brew install onnxruntime
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libonnxruntime libonnxruntime-dev
# Windows (MSVC)
scoop install onnxruntime
# OR download from https://github.com/microsoft/onnxruntime/releases
```
The resulting binary will have ONNX Runtime statically linked or dynamically linked depending on how the FFI library was built. Check the build configuration.
**Note:** Windows MinGW builds do not support embeddings (ONNX Runtime requires MSVC). Use Windows MSVC for embeddings support.
## Quickstart
```go
package main
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/v5"
)
func main() {
result, err := v4.ExtractFileSync("document.pdf", nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatalf("extract failed: %v", err)
}
fmt.Println("MIME:", result.MimeType)
fmt.Println("First 200 chars:")
fmt.Println(result.Content[:200])
}
```
Build and run:
```bash
# Build (make sure you have the static library available - see Install)
CGO_LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/kreuzberg/lib -lkreuzberg_ffi" go build
# Run - no library paths needed!
./myapp
```
The binary is self-contained and can be distributed without any Kreuzberg library dependencies.
## Examples
### Extract bytes
```go
data, err := os.ReadFile("slides.pptx")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
result, err := v4.ExtractBytesSync(data, "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation", nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(result.Metadata.FormatType())
```
### Use advanced configuration
```go
lang := "eng"
cfg := &v4.ExtractionConfig{
UseCache: true,
ForceOCR: false,
ImageExtraction: &v4.ImageExtractionConfig{Enabled: true},
OCR: &v4.OcrConfig{
Backend: "tesseract",
Language: &lang,
},
}
result, err := v4.ExtractFileSync("scanned.pdf", cfg)
```
### Async (context-aware) extraction
```go
ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 30*time.Second)
defer cancel()
result, err := v4.ExtractFile(ctx, "large.pdf", nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println("Content length:", len(result.Content))
```
### Batch extract
```go
paths := []string{"doc1.pdf", "doc2.docx", "report.xlsx"}
results, err := v4.BatchExtractFilesSync(paths, nil)
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
for i, res := range results {
if res == nil {
continue
}
fmt.Printf("[%d] %s => %d bytes\n", i, res.MimeType, len(res.Content))
}
```
### Register a validator
```go
//export customValidator
func customValidator(resultJSON *C.char) *C.char {
// Validate JSON payload and return an error string (or NULL if ok)
return nil
}
func init() {
if err := v4.RegisterValidator("go-validator", 50, (C.ValidatorCallback)(C.customValidator)); err != nil {
log.Fatalf("validator registration failed: %v", err)
}
}
```
## API Reference
- **GoDoc**: [pkg.go.dev/github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/v5]()
- **Full documentation**: [kreuzberg.dev](https://kreuzberg.dev) (configuration, formats, OCR backends)
## Troubleshooting
| Issue | Fix |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `ld returned 1 exit status` or `undefined reference to 'html_to_markdown_...'` | The static library wasn't found. Make sure `CGO_LDFLAGS` points to the directory containing `libkreuzberg_ffi.a`: `CGO_LDFLAGS="-L/path/to/lib -lkreuzberg_ffi" go build` |
| `cannot find -lkreuzberg_ffi` | The static library file is missing or in the wrong location. Download it from [GitHub Releases](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg/releases) or build it yourself: `cargo build -p kreuzberg-ffi --release` |
| `undefined: v4.ExtractFile` | This function was removed in v4.1.0. Use `ExtractFileSync` and wrap in goroutine if needed (see migration guide) |
| `Missing dependency: tesseract` | Install the OCR backend and ensure it is on `PATH`. Errors bubble up as `*v4.MissingDependencyError`. |
| `undefined: C.customValidator` during build | Export the callback with `//export` in a `*_cgo.go` file before using it in `Register*` helpers. |
| `Missing dependency: onnxruntime` | Install ONNX Runtime at build time: `brew install onnxruntime` (macOS), `apt install libonnxruntime libonnxruntime-dev` (Linux), `scoop install onnxruntime` (Windows). Required for embeddings functionality. |
| Embeddings not available on Windows MinGW | Windows MinGW builds cannot link ONNX Runtime (MSVC-only). Use Windows MSVC build for embeddings support, or build without embeddings feature. |
## Testing / Tooling
- `task go:lint` – runs `gofmt` and `golangci-lint` (`golangci-lint` pinned to v2.11.3).
- `task go:test` – executes `go test ./...` (after building the static FFI library).
- `task e2e:go:verify` – regenerates fixtures via the e2e generator and runs `go test ./...` inside `e2e/go`.
Need help? Join the [Discord](https://discord.gg/xt9WY3GnKR) or open an issue with logs, platform info, and the steps you tried.
## Part of Kreuzberg.dev
- [Kreuzberg Cloud](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzberg-cloud) — managed extraction API with SDKs, dashboards, and observability.
- [kreuzcrawl](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/kreuzcrawl) — web crawling and scraping with HTML→Markdown and headless-Chrome fallback.
- [html-to-markdown](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/html-to-markdown) — fast, lossless HTML→Markdown engine.
- [liter-llm](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/liter-llm) — universal LLM API client with native bindings for 14 languages and 143 providers.
- [tree-sitter-language-pack](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/tree-sitter-language-pack) — tree-sitter grammars and code-intelligence primitives.
- [alef](https://github.com/kreuzberg-dev/alef) — the polyglot binding generator that produces this README and all per-language bindings.
- [Discord](https://discord.gg/xt9WY3GnKR) — community, roadmap, announcements.
