Go Development Patterns

Idiomatic Go patterns and best practices for building robust, efficient, and maintainable applications.

When to Activate

• Designing Go package boundaries and module structure
• Choosing an error handling strategy (sentinel errors, error wrapping, custom types)
• Structuring a service with hexagonal architecture or clean architecture in Go
• Deciding between interfaces and concrete types for a component
• Writing idiomatic Go (avoiding anti-patterns, using standard library conventions)
• Setting up dependency injection without a framework

Core Principles

1. Simplicity and Clarity

Go favors simplicity over cleverness. Code should be obvious and easy to read.

// Good: Clear and direct
func GetUser(id string) (*User, error) {
    user, err := db.FindUser(id)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("get user %s: %w", id, err)
    }
    return user, nil
}

// Bad: Overly clever
func GetUser(id string) (*User, error) {
    return func() (*User, error) {
        if u, e := db.FindUser(id); e == nil {
            return u, nil
        } else {
            return nil, e
        }
    }()
}

2. Make the Zero Value Useful

Design types so their zero value is immediately usable without initialization.

// Good: Zero value is useful
type Counter struct {
    mu    sync.Mutex
    count int // zero value is 0, ready to use
}

func (c *Counter) Inc() {
    c.mu.Lock()
    c.count++
    c.mu.Unlock()
}

// Good: bytes.Buffer works with zero value
var buf bytes.Buffer
buf.WriteString("hello")

// Bad: Requires initialization
type BadCounter struct {
    counts map[string]int // nil map will panic
}

3. Accept Interfaces, Return Structs

Functions should accept interface parameters and return concrete types.

// Good: Accepts interface, returns concrete type
func ProcessData(r io.Reader) (*Result, error) {
    data, err := io.ReadAll(r)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    return &Result{Data: data}, nil
}

// Bad: Returns interface (hides implementation details unnecessarily)
func ProcessData(r io.Reader) (io.Reader, error) {
    // ...
}

Error Handling Patterns

Error Wrapping with Context

// Good: Wrap errors with context
func LoadConfig(path string) (*Config, error) {
    data, err := os.ReadFile(path)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("load config %s: %w", path, err)
    }

    var cfg Config
    if err := json.Unmarshal(data, &cfg); err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("parse config %s: %w", path, err)
    }

    return &cfg, nil
}

Custom Error Types

// Define domain-specific errors
type ValidationError struct {
    Field   string
    Message string
}

func (e *ValidationError) Error() string {
    return fmt.Sprintf("validation failed on %s: %s", e.Field, e.Message)
}

// Sentinel errors for common cases
var (
    ErrNotFound     = errors.New("resource not found")
    ErrUnauthorized = errors.New("unauthorized")
    ErrInvalidInput = errors.New("invalid input")
)

Error Checking with errors.Is and errors.As

func HandleError(err error) {
    // Check for specific error
    if errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) {
        log.Println("No records found")
        return
    }

    // Check for error type
    var validationErr *ValidationError
    if errors.As(err, &validationErr) {
        log.Printf("Validation error on field %s: %s",
            validationErr.Field, validationErr.Message)
        return
    }

    // Unknown error
    log.Printf("Unexpected error: %v", err)
}

Never Ignore Errors

// Bad: Ignoring error with blank identifier
result, _ := doSomething()

// Good: Handle or explicitly document why it's safe to ignore
result, err := doSomething()
if err != nil {
    return err
}

// Acceptable: When error truly doesn't matter (rare)
_ = writer.Close() // Best-effort cleanup, error logged elsewhere

Concurrency Patterns

Worker Pool

func WorkerPool(jobs <-chan Job, results chan<- Result, numWorkers int) {
    var wg sync.WaitGroup

    for i := 0; i < numWorkers; i++ {
        wg.Add(1)
        go func() {
            defer wg.Done()
            for job := range jobs {
                results <- process(job)
            }
        }()
    }

    wg.Wait()
    close(results)
}

Context for Cancellation and Timeouts

func FetchWithTimeout(ctx context.Context, url string) ([]byte, error) {
    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 5*time.Second)
    defer cancel()

    req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, "GET", url, nil)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("create request: %w", err)
    }

    resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("fetch %s: %w", url, err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    return io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
}

Graceful Shutdown

func GracefulShutdown(server *http.Server) {
    quit := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
    signal.Notify(quit, syscall.SIGINT, syscall.SIGTERM)

    <-quit
    log.Println("Shutting down server...")

    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 30*time.Second)
    defer cancel()

    if err := server.Shutdown(ctx); err != nil {
        log.Fatalf("Server forced to shutdown: %v", err)
    }

    log.Println("Server exited")
}

errgroup for Coordinated Goroutines

import "golang.org/x/sync/errgroup"

func FetchAll(ctx context.Context, urls []string) ([][]byte, error) {
    g, ctx := errgroup.WithContext(ctx)
    results := make([][]byte, len(urls))

    for i, url := range urls {
        g.Go(func() error {
            data, err := FetchWithTimeout(ctx, url)
            if err != nil {
                return err
            }
            results[i] = data
            return nil
        })
    }

    if err := g.Wait(); err != nil {
        return nil, err
    }
    return results, nil
}

Avoiding Goroutine Leaks

Use a buffered channel and select with ctx.Done() so the goroutine can exit even if no receiver picks up the result:

func safeFetch(ctx context.Context, url string) <-chan []byte {
    ch := make(chan []byte, 1) // Buffered — goroutine won't block
    go func() {
        data, err := fetch(url)
        if err != nil { return }
        select {
        case ch <- data:
        case <-ctx.Done(): // Exit if caller cancelled
        }
    }()
    return ch
}

For advanced patterns covering interfaces (small focused interfaces, define-where-used, type assertions), package organization (hexagonal layout, naming conventions, avoiding package-level state), and full hexagonal architecture with working code — see go-patterns-advanced.

Anti-Patterns

Returning Interfaces Instead of Concrete Types

Wrong: func NewUserService() UserServiceInterface { return &userServiceImpl{} }

Correct: func NewUserService(store UserStore) *UserService { return &UserService{store: store} }

Why: Returning interfaces forces a specific abstraction on callers; accept interfaces, return structs. Callers define the interfaces they need.

Using init() for Side Effects and Dependency Setup

Wrong:

var db *sql.DB

func init() {
    var err error
    db, err = sql.Open("postgres", os.Getenv("DATABASE_URL"))
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err) // Hard to test, no error propagation
    }
}

Correct:

func NewServer(databaseURL string) (*Server, error) {
    db, err := sql.Open("postgres", databaseURL)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("open database: %w", err)
    }
    return &Server{db: db}, nil
}

Why: init() functions run silently at startup, cannot return errors cleanly, and make code untestable; explicit constructors with error returns are always preferable.

Comparing Errors with == Instead of errors.Is

Wrong:

if err == sql.ErrNoRows {
    // Misses wrapped errors
}

Correct:

if errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) {
    // Works through any chain of wrapped errors
}

Why: The == operator only matches the exact error value and silently fails when the error has been wrapped with fmt.Errorf("...: %w", err).

Forgetting to Cancel a Context

Wrong:

func fetchData(url string) ([]byte, error) {
    ctx, _ := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Second)
    // cancel is discarded — context leaks until timeout
    req, _ := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, "GET", url, nil)
    // ...
}

Correct:

func fetchData(url string) ([]byte, error) {
    ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 5*time.Second)
    defer cancel() // Always cancel to release resources immediately
    req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, "GET", url, nil)
    // ...
}

Why: Discarding the cancel function keeps the context and its resources alive until the deadline, causing resource leaks especially in high-throughput code paths.

For advanced patterns — full hexagonal architecture with working code (domain, ports, adapters, DI wiring, tests), struct design (functional options, embedding), memory optimization, Go tooling, slices/maps stdlib (Go 1.21+), and anti-patterns — see skill: go-patterns-advanced. For testing patterns — table-driven tests, mocks, integration tests with testcontainers, benchmarks, and fuzz testing — see skill: go-testing.