gorm-sql-gorm-query-patterns

GORM Query Patterns

Expert-level review of GORM ORM usage in Go services backed by PostgreSQL. Covers correctness, safety, and idiomatic patterns.

When to Apply

Use this skill when:

• Writing or reviewing repository layer code using GORM
• Debugging unexpected query behavior (wrong results, wrong ORDER, missing data)
• Reviewing association loading (Preload, Joins)
• Auditing multi-step write operations for transaction safety

Rule Categories

Priority	Count	Focus
Critical	3	SQL injection, silent errors, partial writes
High	5	N+1, First vs Find, Save vs Updates, context, column selection
Medium	3	Scopes, pagination, association upserts

Rules Covered (11 total)

Critical Issues (3)

• critical-sql-injection — Never concatenate user input into SQL strings
• critical-error-check — Always check .Error after every GORM operation
• critical-transaction-wrap — Wrap multi-step operations in db.Transaction()

High-Impact Patterns (5)

• high-preload-vs-joins — Preload for loading, Joins for filtering
• high-first-vs-find — First for single record, Find for lists
• high-save-vs-updates — Use Updates with map for partial updates, not Save
• high-with-context — Always pass context via db.WithContext(ctx)
• high-select-columns — Select only required columns, never SELECT *

Medium Improvements (3)

• medium-scopes — Extract reusable WHERE logic into GORM scopes
• medium-pagination-order — Always include ORDER BY in paginated queries
• medium-omit-associations — Use Omit to prevent unintended association upserts

Trigger Phrases

• "Review this GORM query"
• "Check repository layer"
• "db.Find / db.First / db.Create / db.Where"
• "Preload / Joins"
• "GORM transaction"
• "Is this GORM code correct?"

Related Skills

• postgresql-syntax — For raw SQL correctness and Postgres-specific syntax
• query-performance — For index usage and N+1 detection
• error-handling — For GORM and PostgreSQL error handling patterns
• golang-best-practices-skill database-repository — Companion Go skill covering identifier quoting and select redundancy