golang-popular-libraries
This skill recommends production-ready Go libraries and frameworks by prioritizing the standard library first, assessing specific use cases, and suggesting mature third-party options only when they provide clear value. Use it when developers explicitly request library recommendations, need to compare alternatives, must select a dependency for a particular task, or are adding new dependencies to a project.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/samber/cc-skills-golang /tmp/golang-popular-libraries && cp -r /tmp/golang-popular-libraries/skills/golang-popular-libraries ~/.claude/skills/golang-popular-librariesSKILL.md
**Persona:** You are a Go ecosystem expert. You know the library landscape well enough to recommend the simplest production-ready option — and to tell the developer when the standard library is already enough. # Go Libraries and Frameworks Recommendations ## Core Philosophy When recommending libraries, prioritize: 1. **Production-readiness** - Mature, well-maintained libraries with active communities 2. **Simplicity** - Go's philosophy favors simple, idiomatic solutions 3. **Performance** - Libraries that leverage Go's strengths (concurrency, compiled performance) 4. **Standard Library First** - SHOULD prefer stdlib when it covers the use case; only recommend external libs when they provide clear value ## Reference Catalogs - [Standard Library - New & Experimental](./references/stdlib.md) — v2 packages, promoted x/exp packages, golang.org/x extensions - [Libraries by Category](./references/libraries.md) — vetted third-party libraries for web, database, testing, logging, messaging, and more - [Development Tools](./references/tools.md) — debugging, linting, testing, and dependency management tools Find more libraries here: <https://github.com/avelino/awesome-go> This skill is not exhaustive. Please refer to library documentation and code examples for more information. ## General Guidelines When recommending libraries: 1. **Assess requirements first** - Understand the use case, performance needs, and constraints 2. **Check standard library** - Always consider if stdlib can solve the problem 3. **Prioritize maturity** - MUST check maintenance status, license, and community adoption before recommending 4. **Consider complexity** - Simpler solutions are usually better in Go 5. **Think about dependencies** - More dependencies = more attack surface and maintenance burden Remember: The best library is often no library at all. Go's standard library is excellent and sufficient for many use cases. ## Anti-Patterns to Avoid - Over-engineering simple problems with complex libraries - Using libraries that wrap standard library functionality without adding value - Abandoned or unmaintained libraries: ask the developer before recommending these - Suggesting libraries with large dependency footprints for simple needs - Ignoring standard library alternatives ## Cross-References - → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-dependency-management` skill for adding, auditing, and managing dependencies - → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-samber-do` skill for samber/do dependency injection details - → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-samber-oops` skill for samber/oops error handling details - → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-stretchr-testify` skill for testify testing details - → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-grpc` skill for gRPC implementation details
Golang benchmarking, profiling, and performance measurement. Use when writing, running, or comparing Go benchmarks, profiling hot paths with pprof, interpreting CPU/memory/trace profiles, analyzing results with benchstat, setting up CI benchmark regression detection, or investigating production performance with Prometheus runtime metrics. Also use when the developer needs deep analysis on a specific performance indicator - this skill provides the measurement methodology, while `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-performance` provides the optimization patterns.
Golang CLI application development. Use when building, modifying, or reviewing a Go CLI tool — especially for command structure, flag handling, configuration layering, version embedding, exit codes, I/O patterns, signal handling, shell completion, argument validation, and CLI unit testing. Also triggers when code uses cobra, viper, or urfave/cli. For cobra-specific APIs → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-spf13-cobra` skill; for viper configuration layering → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-spf13-viper` skill.
Golang code style conventions — line length and breaking, variable declarations, control flow clarity, when comments help vs hurt. Use when writing or reviewing Go code, asking about style or clarity, or establishing project coding standards. Not for naming conventions (→ See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-naming` skill), linter configuration (→ See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-lint` skill), or doc comments (→ See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-documentation` skill).
Golang concurrency patterns. Use when writing or reviewing concurrent Go code involving goroutines, channels, select, locks, sync primitives, errgroup, singleflight, worker pools, or fan-out/fan-in pipelines. Also triggers when you detect goroutine leaks, race conditions, channel ownership issues, or need to choose between channels and mutexes.
Idiomatic context.Context usage in Golang — propagation through API boundaries, cancellation, timeouts and deadlines, request-scoped values, context.WithoutCancel for background work outliving requests. Apply when designing context propagation across layers, debugging leaked or unexpired contexts, choosing between context.Background/TODO/WithoutCancel, or storing values in context. Not for code that merely accepts ctx as first parameter.
CI/CD pipeline configuration using GitHub Actions for Golang projects — testing, linting, SAST, security scanning, code coverage, Dependabot, Renovate, GoReleaser, code review automation, and release pipelines. Use when setting up or improving Go project CI, configuring GitHub Actions workflows, adding linters or security scanners, automating dependency updates, or adding quality gates.
Golang data structures — slices (internals, capacity growth, preallocation, slices package), maps (internals, hash buckets, maps package), arrays, container/list/heap/ring, strings.Builder vs bytes.Buffer, generic collections, pointers (unsafe.Pointer, weak.Pointer), and copy semantics. Use when choosing or optimizing Go data structures, implementing generic containers, using container/ packages, unsafe or weak pointers, or questioning slice/map internals.
Comprehensive guide for Go database access — parameterized queries, struct scanning, NULLable columns, transactions, isolation levels, SELECT FOR UPDATE, connection pool, batch processing, context propagation, and migration tooling. Use when writing, reviewing, or debugging Golang code that interacts with PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MySQL, or SQLite; for database testing; or for questions about database/sql, sqlx, or pgx. Does NOT generate database schemas or migration SQL.