The context package didn't exist when Gin was created, so they invented their own solution. There was a proliferation of these context types until the standard

The context package didn't exist when Gin was created, so they invented their own solution. There was a proliferation of these context types until the standard library created a common solution. chi uses it, but Echo doesn't. The biggest advantage is that the stdlib context key type is interface{}, so you can use unexported types to create private key namespaces. It's also immutable and thread-safe. Gin and Echo use plain strings that are easy to clobber. This blog post discusses how the stdlib context works: https://go.dev/blog/context https://go.dev/blog/context (see userip bit about the unexported types). In many ways, Echo is a "better Gin".