golang-samber-oops

**Persona:** You are a Go engineer who treats errors as structured data. Every error carries enough context — domain, attributes, trace — for an on-call engineer to diagnose the problem without asking the developer.

# samber/oops Structured Error Handling

**samber/oops** is a drop-in replacement for Go's standard error handling that adds structured context, stack traces, error codes, public messages, and panic recovery. Variable data goes in `.With()` attributes (not the message string), so APM tools (Datadog, Loki, Sentry) can group errors properly. Unlike the stdlib approach (adding `slog` attributes at the log site), oops attributes travel with the error through the call stack.

## Why use samber/oops

Standard Go errors lack context — you see `connection failed` but not which user triggered it, what query was running, or the full call stack. `samber/oops` provides:

- **Structured context** — key-value attributes on any error
- **Stack traces** — automatic call stack capture
- **Error codes** — machine-readable identifiers
- **Public messages** — user-safe messages separate from technical details
- **Low-cardinality messages** — variable data in `.With()` attributes, not the message string, so APM tools group errors properly

This skill is not exhaustive. Please refer to library documentation and code examples for more information. For Go package docs, symbols, versions, importers, and known vulnerabilities, → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-pkg-go-dev` skill (`godig`) — prefer it over Context7 for Go package facts. To navigate this library's usage in your own code (definitions, call sites, diagnostics), → See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-gopls` skill (`gopls`). Context7 remains a fallback for docs not indexed on pkg.go.dev.

## Core pattern: Error builder chain

All `oops` errors use a fluent builder pattern:

```go
err := oops.
    In("user-service").           // domain/feature
    Tags("database", "postgres").  // categorization
    Code("network_failure").       // machine-readable identifier
    User("user-123", "email", "foo@bar.com").  // user context
    With("query", query).          // custom attributes
    Errorf("failed to fetch user: %s", "timeout")
```

Terminal methods:

- `.Errorf(format, args...)` — create a new error
- `.Wrap(err)` — wrap an existing error
- `.Wrapf(err, format, args...)` — wrap with a message
- `.Join(err1, err2, ...)` — combine multiple errors
- `.Recover(fn)` / `.Recoverf(fn, format, args...)` — convert panic to error

### Error builder methods

| Methods | Use case |
| --- | --- |
| `.With("key", value)` | Add custom key-value attribute (lazy `func() any` values supported) |
| `.WithContext(ctx, "key1", "key2")` | Extract values from Go context into attributes (lazy values supported) |
| `.In("domain")` | Set the feature/service/domain |
| `.Tags("auth", "sql")` | Add categorization tags (query with `err.HasTag("tag")`) |
| `.Code("iam_authz_missing_permission")` | Set machine-readable error identifier/slug |
| `.Public("Could not fetch user.")` | Set user-safe message (separate from technical details) |
| `.Hint("Runbook: https://doc.acme.org/doc/abcd.md")` | Add debugging hint for developers |
| `.Owner("team/slack")` | Identify responsible team/owner |
| `.User(id, "k", "v")` | Add user identifier and attributes |
| `.Tenant(id, "k", "v")` | Add tenant/organization context and attributes |
| `.Trace(id)` | Add trace / correlation ID (default: ULID) |
| `.Span(id)` | Add span ID representing a unit of work/operation (default: ULID) |
| `.Time(t)` | Override error timestamp (default: `time.Now()`) |
| `.Since(t)` | Set duration based on time since `t` (exposed via `err.Duration()`) |
| `.Duration(d)` | Set explicit error duration |
| `.Request(req, includeBody)` | Attach `*http.Request` (optionally including body) |
| `.Response(res, includeBody)` | Attach `*http.Response` (optionally including body) |
| `oops.FromContext(ctx)` | Start from an `OopsErrorBuilder` stored in a Go context |

## Common scenarios

### Database/repository layer

```go
func (r *UserRepository) FetchUser(id string) (*User, error) {
    query := "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1"
    row, err := r.db.Query(query, id)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, oops.
            In("user-repository").
            Tags("database", "postgres").
            With("query", query).
            With("user_id", id).
            Wrapf(err, "failed to fetch user from database")
    }
    // ...
}
```

### HTTP handler layer

```go
func (h *Handler) CreateUser(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
    userID := getUserID(r)

    err := h.service.CreateUser(r.Context(), userID)
    if err != nil {
        err = oops.
            In("http-handler").
            Tags("endpoint", "/users").
            Request(r, false).
            User(userID).
            Wrapf(err, "create user failed")
        http.Error(w, oops.GetPublic(err, "Internal server error"), http.StatusInternalServerError)
        return
    }

    w.WriteHeader(http.StatusCreated)
}
```

### Service layer with reusable builder

```go
func (s *UserService) CreateOrder(ctx context.Context, req CreateOrderRequest) error {
    builder := oops.
        In("order-service").
        Tags("orders", "checkout").
        Tenant(req.TenantID, "plan", req.Plan).
        User(req.UserID, "email", req.UserEmail)

    product, err := s.catalog.GetProduct(ctx, req.ProductID)
    if err != nil {
        return builder.
            With("product_id", req.ProductID).
            Wrapf(err, "product lookup failed")
    }

    if product.Stock < req.Quantity {
        return builder.
            Code("insufficient_stock").
            Public("Not enough items in stock.").
            With("requested", req.Quantity).
            With("available", product.Stock).
            Errorf("insufficient stock for product %s", req.ProductID)
    }

    return nil
}
```

## Error wrapping best practices

### DO: Wrap directly, no nil check