effective-go

name

effective-go

description

Apply idiomatic Go best practices when reviewing, writing, or refactoring Go code. Covers naming, error handling, interfaces, concurrency/context, HTTP client/server production setup, receiver types, testing patterns, and project structure. Use this skill whenever the user is working with Go — writing new Go code, reviewing Go PRs or snippets, refactoring `.go` files, fixing Go style issues, or asking about idiomatic Go — even if they don't explicitly ask for "best practices." Also trigger on mentions of gofmt, goimports, go vet, effective Go, Go code review comments, goroutine leaks, context.Context usage, receiver types, or any Go-specific idiom question.

Effective Go

A code-review and authoring skill distilling common Go review comments and idiomatic patterns, sourced from pthethanh/effective-go (which itself supplements the official Effective Go and Go Code Review Comments).

When to use

• Reviewing Go code → Walk the checklist below. Flag every violation with the specific rule and a concrete fix.
• Writing new Go code → Apply the patterns proactively. Prefer nil slices, accept ctx as first param, return concrete types, etc.
• Refactoring Go code → Identify which rules the current code violates, then show a before/after.

For any rule where the user needs more depth (rationale, full examples, edge cases), read references/best-practices.md.

Review checklist

Work through these categories when reviewing Go code. Each bullet is a high-signal thing to check.

Formatting & tooling

• Code is gofmt'd (or goimports'd). If not, flag it — this should be automatic in the IDE.
• go vet ./... passes. Suggest wiring into a Makefile along with , , .