go-development

Go Development Patterns

Idiomatic Go patterns focusing on simplicity, clarity, and concurrency.

CRITICAL: Agentic-First Go Development

Pre-Development Verification (MANDATORY)

Before writing ANY Go code:

1. CHECK GO INSTALLATION
   → run_terminal_cmd("go version")
   
2. VERIFY CURRENT GO VERSION (use web_search)
   → web_search("Go golang stable version December 2024")
   → Ensure go.mod uses correct version
   
3. CHECK EXISTING PROJECT
   → Does go.mod exist? Read it first!
   → What Go version is specified?
   → Are dependencies already present?
   
4. FOR NEW PROJECTS - USE go mod init
   → NEVER manually create go.mod
   → run_terminal_cmd("go mod init github.com/org/project")

CLI-First Go Development

ALWAYS use Go CLI tools:

# Project initialization (NEVER manually create go.mod)
go mod init github.com/myorg/myproject

# Add dependencies (NEVER manually edit go.mod)
go get github.com/gin-gonic/gin@latest
go get github.com/lib/[email protected]

# Verify and tidy
go mod tidy
go mod verify

# Build and test
go build ./...
go test ./...
go vet ./...

# Format (ALWAYS before committing)
go fmt ./...
gofmt -s -w .

Post-Edit Verification

After ANY Go code changes, ALWAYS run:

# Verify compilation
go build ./...

# Check for issues
go vet ./...

# Run tests
go test ./...

# Ensure dependencies are correct
go mod tidy

Common Go Syntax Traps (Avoid These!)

// WRONG: Missing error check
result, _ := doSomething()  // Never ignore errors!

// CORRECT: Always handle errors
result, err := doSomething()
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("doSomething failed: %w", err)
}

// WRONG: Range loop variable capture
for _, item := range items {
    go func() {
        process(item)  // Bug! Captures loop variable
    }()
}

// CORRECT: Pass as parameter
for _, item := range items {
    go func(i Item) {
        process(i)
    }(item)
}

// WRONG: Nil map write
var m map[string]int
m["key"] = 1  // Panic!

// CORRECT: Initialize map
m := make(map[string]int)
m["key"] = 1