go-coding-standards

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Go coding standards and style conventions grounded in Effective Go, Go Code Review Comments, and production-proven idioms. Use when writing or reviewing Go code, enforcing naming conventions, import ordering, variable declarations, struct initialization, or formatting rules. Trigger examples: "check Go style", "fix formatting", "review naming", "Go conventions". Do NOT use for architecture decisions, concurrency patterns, or performance tuning — use go-architecture-review, go-concurrency-review, or go-performance-review instead.

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Sourceeduardo-sl/go-agent-skills

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Go Coding Standards

Idiomatic Go conventions grounded in Effective Go, Go Code Review Comments, and production-proven idioms. All code MUST pass

goimports

,

golint

, and

go vet

without errors.

1. Import Ordering

Group imports in this order, separated by blank lines:

go

import (
    // 1. Standard library
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "net/http"

    // 2. External packages
    "github.com/gorilla/mux"
    "go.uber.org/zap"

    // 3. Internal/project packages
    "github.com/myorg/myproject/internal/service"
)

NEVER use dot imports. Use aliasing only to resolve conflicts.

2. Naming Conventions

Packages

Short, lowercase, single-word names. No underscores, no camelCase.
Name should describe what the package provides, not what it contains.
Avoid generic names:
```
util
```
,
```
common
```
,
```
helpers
```
,
```
misc
```
,
```
base
```
.

Functions & Methods

MixedCaps (exported) or mixedCaps (unexported). No underscores except in test files.
Getters: use
```
Name()
```
, NOT
```
GetName()
```
. Setters: use
```
SetName()
```
.
Constructors:
```
NewFoo()
```
returns
```
*Foo
```
. If only one type in package:
```
New()
```
.

Variables

Short names in tight scopes:
```
i
```
,
```
n
```
,
```
err
```
,
```
ctx
```
.
Descriptive names for wider scopes:
```
userCount
```
,
```
retryTimeout
```
.
Prefix unexported package-level globals with
```
_
```
:
```
var _defaultTimeout = 5 * time.Second
```
.
Do NOT shadow built-in identifiers (
```
error
```
,
```
len
```
,
```
cap
```
,
```
new
```
,
```
make
```
,
```
close
```
).

Interfaces

Single-method interfaces: method name +
```
-er
```
suffix (
```
Reader
```
,
```
Writer
```
,
```
Closer
```
).
Define interfaces where they are consumed, not where they are implemented.

3. Variable Declarations

Top-level

Use

var

for top-level declarations. Do NOT specify type when it matches the expression:

go

// ✅ Good
var _defaultPort = 8080
var _logger = zap.NewNop()

// ❌ Bad — redundant type
var _defaultPort int = 8080

Local

Prefer
```
:=
```
for local variables.
Use
```
var
```
only when zero-value initialization is intentional and meaningful.

go

// ✅ Good — zero value is meaningful
var buf bytes.Buffer

// ✅ Good — short declaration
name := getUserName()

4. Struct Initialization

ALWAYS use field names. Never rely on positional initialization:

go

// ✅ Good
user := User{
    Name:  "Alice",
    Email: "alice@example.com",
    Age:   30,
}

// ❌ Bad — positional, breaks on field reordering
user := User{"Alice", "alice@example.com", 30}

Omit zero-value fields unless clarity requires them:

go

// ✅ Good — zero values omitted
user := User{
    Name: "Alice",
}

5. Reduce Nesting

Handle errors and special cases first with early returns. Reduce indentation levels:

go

// ✅ Good — early return
func process(data []Item) error {
    for _, v := range data {
        if !v.IsValid() {
            log.Printf("invalid item: %v", v)
            continue
        }

        if err := v.Process(); err != nil {
            return err
        }

        v.Send()
    }
    return nil
}

Eliminate unnecessary

else

blocks:

go

// ✅ Good
a := 10
if condition {
    a = 20
}

// ❌ Bad
var a int
if condition {
    a = 20
} else {
    a = 10
}

6. Grouping and Ordering

Group related declarations:

go

const (
    _defaultPort    = 8080
    _defaultTimeout = 30 * time.Second
)

var (
    _validTypes  = map[string]bool{"json": true, "xml": true}
    _defaultUser = User{Name: "guest"}
)

Function ordering within a file:

Constants and variables
```
New()
```
/ constructor functions
Exported methods (sorted by importance, not alphabetically)
Unexported methods
Helper functions

Receiver methods should appear immediately after the type declaration.

7. Line Length

Soft limit of 99 characters. Break long function signatures:

go

func (s *Store) CreateUser(
    ctx context.Context,
    name string,
    email string,
    opts ...CreateOption,
) (*User, error) {

8. Defer Usage

Use

defer

for cleanup. It makes intent clear at the point of acquisition:

go

mu.Lock()
defer mu.Unlock()

f, err := os.Open(path)
if err != nil {
    return err
}
defer f.Close()

9. Enums

Start enums at 1 (or use explicit sentinel) so zero-value signals "unset":

go

type Status int

const (
    StatusUnknown Status = iota
    StatusActive
    StatusInactive
)

10. Use

time

Package Properly

Use
```
time.Duration
```
for durations, NOT raw integers.

Use

time.Time

for instants. Use

time.Since(start)

instead of

time.Now().Sub(start)

.

External APIs: accept
```
int
```
or
```
float64
```
and convert internally.

go

// ✅ Good
func poll(interval time.Duration) { ... }
poll(10 * time.Second)

// ❌ Bad
func poll(intervalSecs int) { ... }
poll(10)

Verification Checklist

Before considering code complete:

```
goimports
```
runs clean
```
go vet ./...
```
passes
```
golangci-lint run
```
passes (if configured)
No shadowed built-in identifiers
All imports properly grouped and ordered
Struct initializations use field names
No unnecessary nesting or else blocks