Gantry: Slack’s Fast-booting Frontend Framework

This post introduces Gantry, a new fast-booting frontend framework at Slack. It details the technical decisions made to address legacy frontend limitations, including fetching data on demand, client-side rendering with edge caching (Flannel) and CDN for assets, front-loading API requests with code splitting and dynamic imports, and caching assets/data locally using Service Workers for faster subsequent boots and offline support. It also highlights the benefits of a standardized framework for streamlined development and deployment, enabling code sharing and faster onboarding for engineers.