Go Dev

Go Dev Skill

Build & Verify

# Build (verify compilation)
go build -o /dev/null .

# Build with output
go build -o <binary> .

# Run tests
go test ./...

# Run specific test
go test -run TestName ./package/

# Vet (static analysis)
go vet ./...

Module Management

# Tidy dependencies
go mod tidy

# Add dependency
go get github.com/example/package@latest

# Check module
go mod verify

Code Style

• Package naming: lowercase, single word when possible (commander, mcp, llm)
• File naming: lowercase with underscores (my_file.go)
• Error handling: Always check errors, wrap with context using fmt.Errorf("context: %w", err)
• Exports: Only export what's needed by other packages
• Comments: Exported functions must have doc comments

Project Structure Conventions

project/
├── main.go              # Entry point
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── package1/            # Feature packages
│   ├── types.go         # Types and interfaces
│   ├── logic.go         # Core logic
│   └── helpers.go       # Utilities
└── package2/

Debugging

# Build with debug symbols
go build -gcflags="all=-N -l" .

# Print to stderr for debugging
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "debug: %v\n", value)

Common Patterns

Error wrapping

if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("operation failed: %w", err)
}

File operations

data, err := os.ReadFile(path)
if err != nil {
    return err
}
err = os.WriteFile(path, data, 0644)

Command execution

cmd := exec.Command("program", "arg1", "arg2")
cmd.Dir = workDir
out, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()

Rules

• Always run go build before committing to verify compilation
• Go must be in PATH — see references/SETUP.md for installation and PATH setup
• No init() functions unless absolutely necessary
• Keep packages focused — one responsibility per package