go-style-core

Go Style Core Principles

Resource Routing

• references/PRINCIPLES.md - Read when resolving conflicts between clarity, simplicity, concision, maintainability, and consistency.
• references/FORMATTING.md - Read when handling gofmt, line breaks, whitespace, comments, or semicolons.

Style Principles (Priority Order)

When writing readable Go code, apply these principles in order of importance:

Priority Order

1. Clarity — Can a reader understand the code without extra context?
2. Simplicity — Is this the simplest way to accomplish the goal?
3. Concision — Does every line earn its place?
4. Maintainability — Will this be easy to modify later?
5. Consistency — Does it match surrounding code and project conventions?

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Formatting

Run gofmt — no exceptions. There is no rigid line length limit, but Uber suggests a soft limit of 99 characters. Break by semantics, not length — refactor rather than just wrap.

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Reduce Nesting

Handle error cases and special conditions first. Return early or continue the loop to keep the "happy path" unindented.

// Bad: Deeply nested
for _, v := range data {
    if v.F1 == 1 {
        v = process(v)
        if err := v.Call(); err == nil {
            v.Send()
        } else {
            return err
        }
    } else {
        log.Printf("Invalid v: %v", v)
    }
}

// Good: Flat structure with early returns
for _, v := range data {
    if v.F1 != 1 {
        log.Printf("Invalid v: %v", v)
        continue
    }

    v = process(v)
    if err := v.Call(); err != nil {
        return err
    }
    v.Send()
}

Unnecessary Else

If a variable is set in both branches of an if, use default + override pattern.

// Bad: Setting in both branches
var a int
if b {
    a = 100
} else {
    a = 10
}

// Good: Default + override
a := 10
if b {
    a = 100
}

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Naked Returns

A return statement without arguments returns the named return values. This is known as a "naked" return.