Idiomatic Go

Write Go that is boring in the best way - direct, predictable, obvious on the first read. Clear is better than clever. The common failure mode (and the LLM default) is importing Java/Spring habits - deep layer trees, generic repositories, heavy frameworks, manual worker pools - into a language built for flat, simple, discoverable APIs. When in doubt, delete the abstraction.

Core principles

Clear is better than clever. If a function's control flow takes three reads to follow, rewrite it. Keep the happy path un-indented: handle errors and edge cases first and return.

func GetUser(id string) (*User, error) {
    user, err := db.FindUser(id)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("finding user %s: %w", id, err)
    }
    return user, nil // happy path stays at the left margin
}

Make the zero value useful. Design types so the zero value works without a constructor - sync.Mutex and bytes.Buffer are the gold standard.

type Counter struct {
    mu    sync.Mutex // usable at the zero value - no New() needed
    count int
}

func (c *Counter) Inc() { c.mu.Lock(); c.count++; c.mu.Unlock() }

Packages: flat, named for what they do

Start flat; add a package only when a domain earns a namespace. Name packages by what they do (auth, billing, jobs), never by what layer they are (service, repository, controller) - layer-named packages breed circular imports and interface bloat and add zero clarity in Go. No utils/, helpers/, or common/ junk drawers; they signal unclear ownership. Packages don't import each other sideways - cycles mean wrong boundaries; the composition root wires them.

In this repo: code lives under internal/ in a deliberate domain (pure interfaces) / infra (adapters) / services (business logic) split, wired by a DI container (internal/container/container.go). That is this project's structure - follow it; don't "flatten internal/." spf13's transferable rules still hold: name by purpose, no junk-drawer packages, wire at the composition root (here, the container).

Interfaces: discovered, not designed

Write concrete types first. Introduce an interface only when a consumer genuinely needs to swap implementations, and define it in the consuming package, kept small (io.Reader, not *os.File). Accept interfaces, return structs - callers get the narrow dependency they need without type-asserting to reach real fields.

// the consumer declares exactly what it needs; the concrete store needn't know
type UserFetcher interface {
    GetUser(id string) (*User, error)
}

type Processor struct{ fetcher UserFetcher }

In this repo: domain contracts are centralized in internal/domain/interfaces.go so counterfeiter can generate fakes from one place - that's the established seam. Still prefer small interfaces; just declare new ones there when they need a generated mock.

Errors are values

Check them explicitly; they aren't exceptions. Wrap with %w to add context while preserving the chain for errors.Is / errors.As. Combine siblings with errors.Join (Go 1.20) - no multierr needed.

data, err := os.ReadFile(path)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("loading config %s: %w", path, err)
}

Functional options for complex construction

When a type has many optional settings, avoid telescoping constructors:

type Option func(*Server)

func WithTimeout(d time.Duration) Option { return func(s *Server) { s.timeout = d } }

func NewServer(addr string, opts ...Option) *Server {
    s := &Server{addr: addr, timeout: 30 * time.Second} // sane defaults
    for _, opt := range opts {
        opt(s)
    }
    return s
}

Testing is just Go

Go testing is just Go programming - reach for the stdlib testing package, not a BDD framework.

• Table-driven tests with t.Run subtests are the standard.
• Call t.Helper() in assertion helpers so failures point at the case, not the helper.
• Prefer simple fakes/stubs for stand-ins - implicit interfaces make them cheap to hand-write.
• Put fixtures in testdata/ (the tool ignores it); diff large output against golden files.
• Compare structs with github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp, not reflect.DeepEqual.
• Abstract the filesystem with afero and inject afero.NewMemMapFs() in tests.

func TestParse(t *testing.T) {
    tests := []struct {
        name    string
        in      string
        wantErr bool
    }{
        {"valid", "port=8080", false},
        {"bad", "port=abc", true},
    }
    for _, tt := range tests {
        t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
            _, err := Parse(tt.in)
            if (err != nil) != tt.wantErr {
                t.Fatalf("Parse(%q) err = %v, wantErr %v", tt.in, err, tt.wantErr)
            }
        })
    }
}

In this repo: fakes for domain interfaces are counterfeiter-generated under tests/mocks/, not hand-written. Regenerate with task mocks:generate (pre-commit runs it when internal/domain/interfaces.go changes); for a new domain interface, add a counterfeiter line under mocks:generate in Taskfile.yml. Use the generated fakes - don't hand-roll rivals. Table tests, testdata, and go-cmp still apply.

Use current Go, not 2018 Go

This repo targets Go 1.26 - reach for the modern stdlib before any third-party helper or hand-rolled loop:

Instead of	Use
sort.Slice(s, ...)	slices.Sort(s), slices.SortFunc, slices.Contains/Index
manual key/value loops	maps.Keys/Values/Clone/Copy/Equal
if x == 0 { x = def }	cmp.Or(x, def); min/max built-ins
ad-hoc multi-error joins	errors.Join(err1, err2)
atomic.AddInt64(&n, 1)	typed atomic.Int64/Bool/Pointer[T] (n.Add(1))
gorilla/mux for basic routing	net/http: mux.HandleFunc("GET /u/{id}", ...) + r.PathValue("id")
for i := 0; i < n; i++	for i := range n
interface{}	any
// +build tags	//go:build

To keep a request's values but drop its cancellation for work that outlives it, use context.WithoutCancel(ctx) (Go 1.21).

Generics eliminate duplication, not model hierarchies

Use a generic when the same algorithm runs over many concrete types.

func Map[S, T any](s []S, f func(S) T) []T {
    out := make([]T, len(s))
    for i, v := range s {
        out[i] = f(v)
    }
    return out
}

Do not write generic "repositories", services, or base types - that's Java in Go syntax. Use comparable for map keys/equality and cmp.Ordered for </>. Start concrete; generify only once the same logic repeats across 3+ types.

Logging discipline

logger.Debug("cache miss", "key", key)      // high-volume internal state
logger.Info("server started", "addr", addr) // lifecycle events
logger.Warn("retrying", "attempt", n)        // recoverable problems
logger.Error("request failed", "err", err)   // needs attention

• Inject the logger as a dependency; no package-level logger beyond main.
• Never log and return the same error - log once at the boundary, return it up the stack everywhere else.

In this repo: logging is go.uber.org/zap (*zap.Logger, from the container's Logger()), not slog. The discipline above is identical.

Concurrency, briefly

• Share memory by communicating - pass data over a channel instead of guarding it with a mutex where you can. Channels orchestrate; mutexes serialize.
• Bound concurrency with a buffered-channel semaphore, not a static worker pool (Go's scheduler is cheap):

func FetchAll(ctx context.Context, urls []string, max int) error {
    sem := make(chan struct{}, max)
    g, ctx := errgroup.WithContext(ctx)
    for _, u := range urls {
        sem <- struct{}{} // blocks at the limit
        g.Go(func() error {
            defer func() { <-sem }()
            return fetch(ctx, u)
        })
    }
    return g.Wait()
}

• Never start a goroutine without knowing how it stops - every go func() needs a ctx/closed-channel exit, or it leaks.

For channel patterns in depth - done-channel, fan-out/fan-in, pipeline, or-done, context propagation, worker semaphore - see the go-concurrency skill, and verify with go test -race.

Debugging: the Go toolchain is not the bug

go build/test/run are deterministic and the build cache is keyed by source - don't suspect them or reach for go clean -cache. When an error survives your edit, it's almost always one of these, in order:

1. The edit didn't fix the actual logic.
2. It was in the wrong file, function, or package.
3. A second call site has the same bug, unfixed.
4. The error comes from a different code path than you edited.

Re-read the (accurate) error, confirm the file is actually compiled (go list -f '{{.GoFiles}}' .), and add a t.Log/print at the exact site.

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Adapted from spf13/go-skills (MIT, by Steve Francia), trimmed and reconciled with this repo's conventions. Pairs with go-concurrency, cobra-viper, and go-spec-reviewer.