---

name: go-dev description: General Go development guide. Use when writing Go code, implementing best practices, formatting code, writing tests, using mocks, handling errors, or understanding Go coding conventions. Covers code style, testing patterns, dependency injection, interface design, and performance optimization. Project-agnostic guidelines applicable to any Go codebase.

Go Development Guide

General-purpose Go development guidelines and best practices.

Core Principles

• Write effective Go code (see effective-go skill for reference)
• Use the Go standard library whenever possible
• Limit line length to 120 characters
• Write testable code using interfaces and dependency injection
• Wrap OS operations in interfaces for mockability

Code Organization

• Add interface verification after struct definitions: var _ Interface = (*Struct)(nil)
• Provide NewStructName constructors for all structs
• Always use dependency injection in constructors
• Pre-allocate collections when size is known

Optional Types

Use samber/mo for safer nil handling:

Copyimport "github.com/samber/mo"

type Config struct {
    Shell mo.Option[string]
}

if shell, ok := config.Shell.Get(); ok {
    // use shell
}

Testing

• Use testify library with require for assertions
• Name tests descriptively: Test_<DescriptiveStatement>
• Use table-driven tests for multiple scenarios
• Generate mocks with mockery (moq template) - never edit manually
• Check errors by keywords, not full message matching

Detailed References

For all coding conventions and patterns: See Code Style Reference

For all testing conventions: See Test Style Reference