OpenResty Private Libraries: High-Performance Lua & Nginx Modules

Yichun Zhang Posted Jul 8, 2026 Updated Jul 7, 2026

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OpenResty’s private libraries are commercial, production-grade Lua libraries and Nginx modules built and maintained by OpenResty Inc. Several of them are drop-in replacements or deep enhancements of well-known open-source components — lua-resty-redis, lua-resty-http, lua-cjson, even LuaJIT itself — with pure-C cores for higher throughput, predictable resource usage, and commercial support.

The Full Catalog

Library	What it does	Open-source counterpart	Learn more
luajit-plus	Optimized LuaJIT engine: proactive RSS memory reclamation at the allocator level, table-operation speedups (thousands of times faster in some scenarios), extra language conveniences	LuaJIT	Blog · Docs
jit.cjson (ships with luajit-plus)	JSON encoding up to 18x and decoding up to 6x faster than open-source Lua-cjson modules; adds JSON comments and trailing commas	lua-cjson	Blog · Manual
lua-resty-jsonb	Manipulates and stores JSON data in binary JSONB form, avoiding serialization/deserialization and reducing GC objects	lua-cjson (alternative approach)	Docs
lua-resty-tls-session	Cluster-wide TLS session ticket key synchronization and zero-downtime rotation — no `nginx -s reload`	— (fills a gap in stock Nginx TLS operations)	Blog · Docs
lua-resty-http-fast	High-performance HTTP client with a pure-C core, 100% non-blocking I/O, interface consistent with the open-source lua-resty-http	lua-resty-http	Docs
lua-resty-kafka-fast	Kafka producer/consumer driven by librdkafka in dedicated execution units; 250,000 msgs/s per core in batch writes	lua-resty-kafka	Blog · Manual
lua-resty-redis-fast	Redis client with a pure-C core — up to 2.5x the performance of the open-source lua-resty-redis	lua-resty-redis	Docs
lua-resty-redis-cluster-fast	Adds Redis Cluster support on top of the same C-based cosocket core	lua-resty-redis (cluster mode)	Docs
lua-resty-mysql-fast	High-performance MySQL client with a pure-C core and 100% non-blocking I/O	—	Docs
lua-resty-memcached-fast	High-performance memcached client with a pure-C core and 100% non-blocking I/O	—	Docs
lua-resty-dymetrics	Lock-free, high-performance metrics collection with JSON or Prometheus output	—	Docs
lua-resty-limit-traffic-dynamic	Dynamic HTTP request rate limiting that keeps CPU utilization within a specified target range	—	Docs
lua-io-nginx-module-plus	Non-blocking file reading and writing, more stable than the open-source version	lua-io-nginx-module	Docs
openresty-minifiers	Streaming JS/CSS/HTML minification as Nginx output filters — 120+ MB/s per core with O(1) memory	—	Blog · Docs
dubbo-nginx-module-plus	Deeply optimized Dubbo gateway module with greater stability and higher performance than open-source alternatives	dubbo-nginx-module	Docs
zstd-nginx-module-plus	Zstandard (zstd) compression — 2–5x better performance than gzip compression — with bug fixes over the open-source version and Lua interfaces for dynamic control	zstd-nginx-module	Docs

What’s Inside, by Scenario

Database and cache clients. lua-resty-redis-fast, lua-resty-redis-cluster-fast, lua-resty-mysql-fast, and lua-resty-memcached-fast share the same design: high-performance clients re-implemented with pure-C cores and 100% non-blocking I/O.

HTTP and messaging. lua-resty-http-fast keeps its interface consistent with the open-source lua-resty-http; lua-resty-kafka-fast moves Kafka writes off the request path entirely; dubbo-nginx-module-plus serves Dubbo gateway deployments.

JSON and data handling. jit.cjson is a drop-in replacement for lua-cjson — no code changes; lua-resty-jsonb goes a step further and avoids serialization altogether by operating on binary JSONB.

Content and compression. openresty-minifiers minifies JS/CSS/HTML in-flight at the gateway when you can’t touch the upstream build pipeline; zstd-nginx-module-plus brings production-hardened Zstandard compression to Nginx.

Traffic control and observability. lua-resty-limit-traffic-dynamic adjusts rate limits dynamically against a CPU utilization target; lua-resty-dymetrics collects metrics lock-free and exports JSON or Prometheus formats.

TLS and the runtime itself. lua-resty-tls-session makes TLS session resumption reliable across load-balanced clusters with zero-downtime key rotation; luajit-plus replaces the LuaJIT runtime to stop RSS inflation and OOM kills; lua-io-nginx-module-plus handles file I/O without blocking the event loop.

How Licensing Works

These libraries are proprietary software built by OpenResty Inc. — the team that created and maintains OpenResty itself. They are distributed as private packages through standard package managers (apt, yum) using a subscription token, and receive continuous updates and security fixes. For evaluation, pricing, or deployment guidance, see the product page or contact our engineering team there.

FAQ

Q: Are OpenResty private libraries open source? A: No. They are commercial, proprietary libraries built by OpenResty Inc. Many of them enhance or replace popular open-source components (lua-resty-redis, lua-resty-http, lua-cjson, LuaJIT).

Q: Do I have to change my code to use them? A: It depends on the library. Several are drop-in: jit.cjson keeps require "cjson" working unchanged, luajit-plus replaces the runtime with no code changes, and openresty-minifiers is configuration-only. Client libraries such as lua-resty-kafka-fast ship their own (intentionally small) APIs.

Q: How do I install them? A: Via your regular package manager (apt-get install / yum install) against OpenResty Inc.’s private package repositories, authenticated with your subscription token. Per-library instructions are in the official documentation.