Defensive Go coding to prevent panics, silent data corruption, and subtle runtime bugs. Use for nil panics, append aliasing, concurrent map access, float comparison pitfalls, zero-value design; or when reviewing for nil-safety, numeric overflow, defer in loops, or defensive copying of slices/maps.
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name
golang-safety
description
Defensive Go coding to prevent panics, silent data corruption, and subtle runtime bugs. Use for nil panics, append aliasing, concurrent map access, float comparison pitfalls, zero-value design; or when reviewing for nil-safety, numeric overflow, defer in loops, or defensive copying of slices/maps.
user-invocable
true
license
MIT
compatibility
Designed for Claude Code, Codex or similar harness, and for projects using Golang.
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
Prefer generics over any when the type set is known — compiler catches mismatches instead of runtime panics
Always use safe type assertions — for normal interfaces use comma-ok (v, ok := x.(T)); for reflection in Go 1.25+ prefer reflect.TypeAssert[T](value) over value.Interface().(T).
Typed nil pointer in an interface is not == nil — the type descriptor makes it non-nil
Writing to a nil map panics — always initialize before use
append may reuse the backing array — both slices share memory if capacity allows, silently corrupting each other
Return defensive copies from exported functions — otherwise callers mutate your internals
defer runs at function exit, not loop iteration — extract loop body to a function
Integer conversions truncate silently — int64 to int32 wraps without error
Float arithmetic is not exact — use epsilon comparison or math/big
Design useful zero values — nil map fields panic on first write; use lazy init
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 == nilfuncgetHandler() http.Handler {
var h *MyHandler
!enabled {
h
}
h
}
http.Handler {
!enabled {
}
&MyHandler{}
}
// nil pointer
if
return
// interface{type: *MyHandler, value: nil} != nil
return
// ✓ Good — return nil explicitly
funcgetHandler()
if
return
nil
// interface{type: nil, value: nil} == nil
return
Nil map, slice, and channel behavior
Type
Index into nil
Write to nil
Len/Cap of nil
Range over nil
Map
Zero value
panic
0
0 iterations
Slice
panic
panic
0
0 iterations
Channel
Blocks forever
Blocks forever
0
Blocks forever
// ✗ Bad — nil map panics on writevar 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 convertingif 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 exactvar a, b, c float64 = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3
a+b == c // false// ✓ Good — use epsilon comparisonconst epsilon = 1e-9
math.Abs((a+b)-c) < epsilon // true
Division by zero
Integer division by zero panics. Float division by zero produces +Inf, -Inf, or NaN.
funcavg(total, count int) (int, error) {
if count == 0 {
return0, 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 returnsfor _, path := range paths {
f, _ := os.Open(path)
defer f.Close() // deferred until function exits
process(f)
}
// ✓ Good — extract to function so defer runs per iterationfor _, path := range paths {
if err := processOne(path); err != nil { return err }
}
funcprocessOne(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 mutatetype Config struct {
Hosts []string
}
// ✓ Good — unexported field with accessor returning a copytype 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 valuevar buf bytes.Buffer // ✓ usable at zero value// ✗ Bad — nil map panics on writetype 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.
Go 1.25+ reflection type assertions
For reflection code, prefer reflect.TypeAssert[T] over value.Interface().(T).
v := reflect.ValueOf(x)
if s, ok := reflect.TypeAssert[string](v); ok {
use(s)
}
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
Cross-References
→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-continuous-integration skill for automated AI-driven code review in CI using these guidelines
