neo4j-driver-go-skill

When to Use

• Writing Go code that connects to Neo4j
• Setting up neo4j.NewDriver(), ExecuteQuery(), or session/transaction patterns
• Debugging connection errors, result iteration, type assertions, causal consistency

When NOT to Use

• Writing/optimizing Cypher → neo4j-cypher-skill
• v5→v6 migration steps → neo4j-migration-skill

---

Installation

go get github.com/neo4j/neo4j-go-driver/v6

Import: github.com/neo4j/neo4j-go-driver/v6/neo4j

v5→v6 rename (deprecated aliases still compile, remove before v7):

v5	v6
neo4j.NewDriverWithContext(...)	neo4j.NewDriver(...)
neo4j.DriverWithContext	neo4j.Driver

---

Environment Variables

import "os"

uri      := getEnv("NEO4J_URI",      "neo4j://localhost:7687")
user     := getEnv("NEO4J_USERNAME", "neo4j")
password := getEnv("NEO4J_PASSWORD", "")
database := getEnv("NEO4J_DATABASE", "neo4j")

func getEnv(key, fallback string) string {
    if v := os.Getenv(key); v != "" { return v }
    return fallback
}

Use godotenv to load .env in dev: godotenv.Load(). .env in .gitignore.

---

Driver Lifecycle

One Driver per application. Goroutine-safe, connection-pooled, expensive to create.

func NewNeo4jDriver(uri, user, password string) (neo4j.Driver, error) {
    driver, err := neo4j.NewDriver(
        uri, // "neo4j+s://xxx.databases.neo4j.io" for Aura
        neo4j.BasicAuth(user, password, ""),
    )
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("create driver: %w", err)
    }
    ctx := context.Background()
    if err := driver.VerifyConnectivity(ctx); err != nil {
        driver.Close(ctx)
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("verify connectivity: %w", err)
    }
    return driver, nil
}

// In main / app teardown:
defer driver.Close(ctx)

❌ Never create driver per-request. Create once at startup; share across goroutines.

URI schemes: neo4j+s:// (Aura/TLS+routing), neo4j:// (plain+routing), bolt+s:// (TLS+single), bolt:// (plain+single).