| name | go-cli-application-architecture |
| description | Design and review maintainable Go CLI application boundaries, package layout, dependency direction, command factories, configuration ownership, adapters, services, storage, and composition roots. Use when starting a multi-command CLI, extracting business logic from Cobra, untangling globals, adding external dependencies, or deciding what belongs under cmd, internal, or reusable packages. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Codex, Claude Code, and other Agent Skills-compatible clients. |
| metadata | {"version":"0.3.0","displayName":"Go CLI Application Architecture","category":"Go","tags":"go,golang,cli,architecture,packages,dependency-injection"} |
Go CLI Application Architecture
Organize around dependency direction and testable behavior, not a copied folder
template. Keep CLI framework code as an adapter around application services.
Core Workflow
- Identify commands, domain actions, external effects, and shared policies.
- Separate parsing/rendering from application orchestration and adapters.
- Define interfaces at the consumer that needs substitution.
- Construct dependencies once in a composition root and pass them explicitly.
- Keep configuration immutable after validation; give mutable state a dedicated store.
- Record ownership and cleanup for every acquired resource and background task.
- Test inward from pure logic to adapters and one assembled executable path.
Read Next
| Task | Load |
|---|
| Design or refactor boundaries | guidelines.md, workflows/design-application-boundaries.md |
| Review ownership and cleanup | workflows/review-resource-lifecycle.md |
| Decide package and interface placement | references/application-architecture/rules.md |
| Review patterns and examples | references/application-architecture/examples.md |
| Understand dependency direction | references/application-architecture/knowledge.md |
Guardrails
- Do not put domain behavior in Cobra
Run functions.
- Avoid a central interfaces package and broad catch-all service abstractions.
- Do not use package globals or
init for dependency construction.
- Keep fallible I/O and order-dependent startup out of
init; use explicit composition.
- Keep runtime configuration distinct from mutable application storage.
- Add layers only when they create a real seam, invariant, or dependency boundary.
Source Notes
Guidance is transformed and paraphrased from Marian Montagnino,
Building Modern CLI Applications in Go (Packt, 2023), especially Chapters
2-3, with original adaptations aligned to current Go conventions.
Concrete-first interfaces, dependency ownership, and adapter lifecycle guidance
also incorporates transformed material from Inanc Gumus, Go by Example:
Programmer's Guide to Idiomatic and Testable Programs (Manning, 2025),
Chapters 5 and 8-10.
Initialization and lifecycle guidance also incorporates transformed material
from Teiva Harsanyi, 100 Go Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Manning, 2022),
Chapters 2, 6, 7, and 10.
