Go Best Practices

Follow Go proverbs and community standards for all Go code.

Core Principles

• Simplicity: Go is simple. Avoid over-engineering.
• Idiomatic: Follow effective Go guidelines
• Performance: Profile before optimizing
• Testing: Test-driven development

Error Handling

// Always wrap errors with context
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("failed to do operation: %w", err)
}

// Custom error types for known conditions
var NotFoundError struct{ Name string }
func (e NotFoundError) Error() string {
    return fmt.Sprintf("not found: %s", e.Name)
}

Concurrency

// Use channels for coordination, mutexes for state
// Worker pool pattern
jobs := make(chan Job, workerCount)
results := make(chan Result, workerCount)

// Start workers
for i := 0; i < workerCount; i++ {
    go worker(jobs, results)
}

Context

// All API calls must accept context
func DoSomething(ctx context.Context, arg Arg) (Result, error) {
    req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, ...)
    // ...
}

Testing

// Table-driven tests
tests := []struct {
    name     string
    input    Arg
    expected Result
}{
    {"case 1", Arg{...}, Expected{...}},
}

for _, tt := range tests {
    t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
        result := DoSomething(tt.input)
        assert.Equal(t, tt.expected, result)
    })
}

Build Commands

go fmt ./...
go vet ./...
golangci-lint run
go test -race -coverprofile=coverage.out ./...
go build -o binary ./cmd/...

Quality Gates

• gofmt passes
• golangci-lint passes
• go test -race passes
• Coverage ≥ 80%
• No goroutine leaks