golang-safety

name	golang-safety
description	Defensive Golang coding to prevent panics, silent data corruption, and subtle runtime bugs. Use whenever writing or reviewing Go code that involves nil-prone types (pointers, interfaces, maps, slices, channels), numeric conversions, resource lifecycle (defer in loops), or defensive copying. Also triggers on questions about nil panics, append aliasing, map concurrent access, float comparison, or zero-value design. Use when this capability is needed.
metadata	{"author":"bang-abilive"}

Persona: You are a defensive Go engineer. You treat every untested assumption about nil, capacity, and numeric range as a latent crash waiting to happen.

Go Safety: Correctness & Defensive Coding

Prevents programmer mistakes — bugs, panics, and silent data corruption in normal (non-adversarial) code. Security handles attackers; safety handles ourselves.

Best Practices Summary

1. Prefer generics over any when the type set is known — compiler catches mismatches instead of runtime panics
2. Always use comma-ok for type assertions — bare assertions panic on mismatch
3. Typed nil pointer in an interface is not == nil — the type descriptor makes it non-nil
4. Writing to a nil map panics — always initialize before use
5. append may reuse the backing array — both slices share memory if capacity allows, silently corrupting each other
6. Return defensive copies from exported functions — otherwise callers mutate your internals
7. defer runs at function exit, not loop iteration — extract loop body to a function
8. Integer conversions truncate silently — int64 to int32 wraps without error
9. Float arithmetic is not exact — use epsilon comparison or math/big
10. Design useful zero values — nil map fields panic on first write; use lazy init
11. Use sync.Once for lazy init — guarantees exactly-once even under concurrency

Nil Safety

Nil-related panics are the most common crash in Go.

The nil interface trap

Interfaces store (type, value). An interface is nil only when both are nil. Returning a typed nil pointer sets the type descriptor, making it non-nil:

// ✗ Dangerous — interface{type: *MyHandler, value: nil} is not == nil
func getHandler() http.Handler {
    var h *MyHandler // nil pointer
    if !enabled {
        return h // interface{type: *MyHandler, value: nil} != nil
    }
    return h
}

// ✓ Good — return nil explicitly
func getHandler() http.Handler {
    if !enabled {
        return nil // interface{type: nil, value: nil} == nil
    }
    return &MyHandler{}
}

Nil map, slice, and channel behavior

Type	Read from nil	Write to nil	Len/Cap of nil	Range over nil
Map	Zero value	panic	0	0 iterations
Slice	panic (index)	panic (index)	0	0 iterations
Channel	Blocks forever	Blocks forever	0	Blocks forever

// ✗ Bad — nil map panics on write
var m map[string]int
m["key"] = 1

// ✓ Good — initialize or lazy-init in methods
m := make(map[string]int)

func (r *Registry) Add(name string, val int) {
    if r.items == nil { r.items = make(map[string]int) }
    r.items[name] = val
}

See Nil Safety Deep Dive for nil receivers, nil in generics, and nil interface performance.

Slice & Map Safety

Slice aliasing — the append trap

append reuses the backing array if capacity allows. Both slices then share memory:

// ✗ Dangerous — a and b share backing array
a := make([]int, 3, 5)
b := append(a, 4)
b[0] = 99 // also modifies a[0]

// ✓ Good — full slice expression forces new allocation
b := append(a[:len(a):len(a)], 4)

Map concurrent access

Maps MUST NOT be accessed concurrently — → see samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-concurrency for sync primitives.

See Slice and Map Deep Dive for range pitfalls, subslice memory retention, and slices.Clone/maps.Clone.

Numeric Safety

Implicit type conversions truncate silently

// ✗ Bad — silently wraps around if val > math.MaxInt32 (3B becomes -1.29B)
var val int64 = 3_000_000_000
i32 := int32(val) // -1294967296 (silent wraparound)

// ✓ Good — check before converting
if val > math.MaxInt32 || val < math.MinInt32 {
    return fmt.Errorf("value %d overflows int32", val)
}
i32 := int32(val)

Float comparison

// ✗ Bad — floating point arithmetic is not exact
0.1+0.2 == 0.3 // false

// ✓ Good — use epsilon comparison
const epsilon = 1e-9
math.Abs((0.1+0.2)-0.3) < epsilon // true

Division by zero

Integer division by zero panics. Float division by zero produces +Inf, -Inf, or NaN.

func avg(total, count int) (int, error) {
    if count == 0 {
        return 0, errors.New("division by zero")
    }
    return total / count, nil
}

For integer overflow as a security vulnerability, see the samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-security skill section.

Resource Safety

defer in loops — resource accumulation

defer runs at function exit, not loop iteration. Resources accumulate until the function returns:

// ✗ Bad — all files stay open until function returns
for _, path := range paths {
    f, _ := os.Open(path)
    defer f.Close() // deferred until function exits
    process(f)
}

// ✓ Good — extract to function so defer runs per iteration
for _, path := range paths {
    if err := processOne(path); err != nil { return err }
}
func processOne(path string) error {
    f, err := os.Open(path)
    if err != nil { return err }
    defer f.Close()
    return process(f)
}

Goroutine leaks

→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-concurrency for goroutine lifecycle and leak prevention.

Immutability & Defensive Copying

Exported functions returning slices/maps SHOULD return defensive copies.

Protecting struct internals

// ✗ Bad — exported slice field, anyone can mutate
type Config struct {
    Hosts []string
}

// ✓ Good — unexported field with accessor returning a copy
type Config struct {
    hosts []string
}

func (c *Config) Hosts() []string {
    return slices.Clone(c.hosts)
}

Initialization Safety

Zero-value design

Design types so var x MyType is safe — prevents "forgot to initialize" bugs:

var mu sync.Mutex   // ✓ usable at zero value
var buf bytes.Buffer // ✓ usable at zero value

// ✗ Bad — nil map panics on write
type Cache struct { data map[string]any }

sync.Once for lazy initialization

type DB struct {
    once sync.Once
    conn *sql.DB
}

func (db *DB) connection() *sql.DB {
    db.once.Do(func() {
        db.conn, _ = sql.Open("postgres", connStr)
    })
    return db.conn
}

init() function pitfalls

→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-design-patterns for why init() should be avoided in favor of explicit constructors.

Enforce with Linters

Many safety pitfalls are caught automatically by linters: errcheck, forcetypeassert, nilerr, govet, staticcheck. See the samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-lint skill for configuration and usage.

Cross-References

• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-concurrency skill for concurrent access patterns and sync primitives
• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-data-structures skill for slice/map internals, capacity growth, and container/ packages
• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-error-handling skill for nil error interface trap
• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-security skill for security-relevant safety issues (memory safety, integer overflow)
• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-troubleshooting skill for debugging panics and race conditions

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Bare type assertion v := x.(T)	Panics on type mismatch, crashing the program. Use v, ok := x.(T) to handle gracefully
Returning typed nil in interface function	Interface holds (type, nil) which is != nil. Return untyped nil for the nil case
Writing to a nil map	Nil maps have no backing storage — write panics. Initialize with make(map[K]V) or lazy-init
Assuming append always copies	If capacity allows, both slices share the backing array. Use s[:len(s):len(s)] to force a copy
defer in a loop	defer runs at function exit, not loop iteration — resources accumulate. Extract body to a separate function
int64 to int32 without bounds check	Values wrap silently (3B → -1.29B). Check against math.MaxInt32/math.MinInt32 first
Comparing floats with ==	IEEE 754 representation is not exact (0.1+0.2 != 0.3). Use math.Abs(a-b) < epsilon
Integer division without zero check	Integer division by zero panics. Guard with if divisor == 0 before dividing
Returning internal slice/map reference	Callers can mutate your struct's internals through the shared backing array. Return a defensive copy
Multiple init() with ordering assumptions	init() execution order across files is unspecified. → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-design-patterns — use explicit constructors
Blocking forever on nil channel	Nil channels block on both send and receive. Always initialize before use

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Source: bang-abilive/go-template — distributed by TomeVault.