go-development

name	go-development
description	Covers idiomatic Go development: project structure, concurrency patterns, error handling, and testing. Use when writing Go services, CLIs, or libraries. Follows Effective Go principles and community conventions. Not for database schema design (use database-design) or infrastructure orchestration (use infrastructure-management).
version	2.0.0-alpha.5

Go Skill

Patterns and best practices for Go development, grounded in Effective Go principles and community conventions.

Contents

• Critical Rules
• Verification
• Quick Reference
• Topics
• Naming Conventions
• Key Decisions

Critical Rules

• Always return errors; check them immediately -- never ignore with _
• Run gofmt on all Go files before committing -- formatting is non-negotiable
• Prefer standard library over external dependencies
• Define interfaces at the consumer, not the provider
• Keep interfaces small (1-3 methods)

Verification

• go vet ./... passes with no warnings
• gofmt -l . produces no output (all files formatted)
• go test ./... passes for all modified packages

Quick Reference

Element	Convention	Example
Packages	lowercase, short, no underscores	http, bytes, strconv
Exported	PascalCase	ReadFile, HTTPClient
Unexported	camelCase	parseConfig, internalState
Interfaces (single method)	Method + "er"	Reader, Stringer, Handler
Getters	No "Get" prefix	user.Name() not user.GetName()
Acronyms	All caps when exported	HTTPServer, xmlParser

Topics

File	Use When
references/core.md	Setting up projects, naming variables, formatting code
references/concurrency.md	Working with goroutines, channels, or sync primitives
references/errors.md	Handling errors, creating custom errors, using panic/recover
references/testing.md	Writing table-driven tests, benchmarks, or examples
references/idioms.md	Using guard clauses, defer, embedding, or method receivers

Naming Conventions

Element	Convention	Example
Packages	lowercase, short, no underscores	http, bytes, strconv
Exported	PascalCase	ReadFile, HTTPClient
Unexported	camelCase	parseConfig, internalState
Interfaces (single method)	Method + "er"	Reader, Stringer, Handler
Getters	No "Get" prefix	user.Name() not user.GetName()
Acronyms	All caps when exported	HTTPServer, xmlParser

Key Decisions

Area	Decision
Error handling	Return errors, check immediately, no exceptions
Formatting	gofmt is non-negotiable
Concurrency	Channels for communication, goroutines are cheap
Interfaces	Small (1-3 methods), defined by consumer
Dependencies	Standard library first, minimize external deps
Generics	Use when type safety matters; prefer interfaces when behavior matters