go-concurrency

Go Concurrency Skill

This skill provides expert guidance on Go's concurrency primitives and patterns, covering goroutines, channels, synchronization, and best practices for building concurrent systems.

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• Implementing concurrent/parallel processing
• Working with goroutines and channels
• Using synchronization primitives (mutexes, wait groups, etc.)
• Debugging race conditions
• Optimizing concurrent performance
• Implementing worker pools or pipelines
• Handling context cancellation

Goroutine Fundamentals

Basic Goroutines

// Simple goroutine
go func() {
    fmt.Println("Hello from goroutine")
}()

// Goroutine with parameters
go func(msg string) {
    fmt.Println(msg)
}("Hello")

// Goroutine with closure
message := "Hello"
go func() {
    fmt.Println(message) // Captures message
}()

Common Pitfalls

// ❌ BAD: Loop variable capture
for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
    go func() {
        fmt.Println(i) // All goroutines may print 5
    }()
}

// ✅ GOOD: Pass as parameter
for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
    go func(n int) {
        fmt.Println(n) // Each prints correct value
    }(i)
}

// ✅ GOOD: Create local copy
for i := 0; i < 5; i++ {
    i := i // Create new variable
    go func() {
        fmt.Println(i)
    }()
}

Channel Patterns

Channel Types

// Unbuffered channel (synchronous)
ch := make(chan int)

// Buffered channel (asynchronous up to buffer size)
ch := make(chan int, 10)

// Send-only channel
func send(ch chan<- int) {
    ch <- 42
}

// Receive-only channel
func receive(ch <-chan int) {
    value := <-ch
}

// Bidirectional channel
ch := make(chan int)

Channel Operations

// Send
ch <- value

// Receive
value := <-ch

// Receive with ok check
value, ok := <-ch
if !ok {
    // Channel closed
}

// Close channel
close(ch)

// Range over channel
for value := range ch {
    fmt.Println(value)
}

Select Statement

// Wait for first available operation
select {
case msg1 := <-ch1:
    fmt.Println("Received from ch1:", msg1)
case msg2 := <-ch2:
    fmt.Println("Received from ch2:", msg2)
case ch3 <- value:
    fmt.Println("Sent to ch3")
default:
    fmt.Println("No channels ready")
}

// Timeout pattern
select {
case result := <-ch:
    return result, nil
case <-time.After(5 * time.Second):
    return nil, errors.New("timeout")
}

// Context cancellation
select {
case result := <-ch:
    return result, nil
case <-ctx.Done():
    return nil, ctx.Err()
}