Golang Expert

Expert guidance for writing clean, idiomatic, maintainable Go code.

Table of Contents

1. Core Principles
2. Quick Reference
3. Detailed Guides

Core Principles

The Go Philosophy

1. Simplicity over cleverness - Readable beats clever
2. Explicit over implicit - No magic, clear data flow
3. Composition over inheritance - Small interfaces, embed structs
4. Errors are values - Handle them, don't ignore them

KISS - Keep It Simple

// BAD - over-engineered
type ProcessorFactory interface {
    CreateProcessor(config Config) Processor
}

// GOOD - direct and simple
func Process(data []byte) (Result, error) {
    // Direct implementation
}

DRY - Don't Repeat Yourself

// BAD - duplicated logic
func ParseUserDate(s string) time.Time { /*...*/ }
func ParseOrderDate(s string) time.Time { /*...*/ } // Same code!

// GOOD - single source of truth
func ParseDate(s string) (time.Time, error) {
    return time.Parse(time.RFC3339, s)
}

Functional Principles

1. No global mutable state - Use dependency injection
2. Immutability - Return new values, don't mutate inputs
3. Pure functions - Same input = same output, no side effects
4. Constants over variables - Use const when possible

// BAD - global state
var logger *Logger
func SetLogger(l *Logger) { logger = l }

// GOOD - dependency injection
type Service struct {
    logger Logger
}
func NewService(logger Logger) *Service {
    return &Service{logger: logger}
}

Quick Reference

Interface Design

// Small, focused interfaces (Interface Segregation)
type Reader interface { Read(p []byte) (n int, err error) }
type Writer interface { Write(p []byte) (n int, err error) }

// Compose when needed
type ReadWriter interface {
    Reader
    Writer
}

// Accept interfaces, return structs
func Process(r Reader) *Result { /*...*/ }

Error Handling

// Wrap errors with context
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("process user %d: %w", id, err)
}

// Sentinel errors for expected conditions
var ErrNotFound = errors.New("not found")

// Check with errors.Is/As
if errors.Is(err, ErrNotFound) { /*...*/ }

Table-Driven Tests

func TestParse(t *testing.T) {
    tests := []struct {
        name    string
        input   string
        want    Result
        wantErr bool
    }{
        {"valid input", "abc", Result{Value: "abc"}, false},
        {"empty input", "", Result{}, true},
    }
    for _, tt := range tests {
        t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
            got, err := Parse(tt.input)
            if (err != nil) != tt.wantErr {
                t.Errorf("Parse() error = %v, wantErr %v", err, tt.wantErr)
                return
            }
            if got != tt.want {
                t.Errorf("Parse() = %v, want %v", got, tt.want)
            }
        })
    }
}

Concurrency

// Always use context for cancellation
func Process(ctx context.Context) error {
    select {
    case <-ctx.Done():
        return ctx.Err()
    case result := <-work():
        return handle(result)
    }
}

// Use errgroup for parallel work
g, ctx := errgroup.WithContext(ctx)
for _, item := range items {
    item := item // capture loop variable
    g.Go(func() error { return process(ctx, item) })
}
return g.Wait()

Detailed Guides

Load these references as needed:

Topic	File	When to Use
Functional Patterns	functional-patterns.md	DI, immutability, pure functions
KISS & DRY	kiss-dry.md	Simplification, code deduplication
Interface Design	interface-design.md	API design, interface segregation
Testing	testing.md	Tests, mocks, benchmarks
Error Handling	error-handling.md	Error patterns, wrapping, types
Concurrency	concurrency.md	Goroutines, channels, sync
Performance	performance.md	Profiling, optimization
Code Review	code-review-checklist.md	Review checklist

Code Review Workflow

When reviewing Go code:

1. Read code-review-checklist.md
2. Check for KISS/DRY violations
3. Verify error handling is complete
4. Assess interface design
5. Review test coverage and quality
6. Flag concurrency issues
7. Identify performance concerns

Refactoring Workflow

When refactoring:

1. Ensure tests exist before changes
2. Apply KISS - Remove unnecessary abstractions
3. Apply DRY - Extract duplicated code
4. Improve interfaces - Make them smaller
5. Add DI - Remove global state
6. Run tests after each change