---
slug: "go-development-skill"
source_type: "readme"
source_url: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/netresearch/go-development-skill@main/README.md"
repo: "https://github.com/netresearch/go-development-skill"
source_file: "README.md"
branch: "main"
---
# Go Development Skill

Production-grade Go development patterns for building resilient services, extracted from real-world projects including job schedulers, Docker integrations, and LDAP clients.

## 🔌 Compatibility

This is an **Agent Skill** following the [open standard](https://agentskills.io) originally developed by Anthropic and released for cross-platform use.

**Supported Platforms:**
- ✅ Claude Code (Anthropic)
- ✅ Cursor
- ✅ GitHub Copilot
- ✅ Other skills-compatible AI agents

> Skills are portable packages of procedural knowledge that work across any AI agent supporting the Agent Skills specification.


## Features

- **Architecture Patterns**: Package structure conventions, state mutation completeness
- **Cron Scheduling**: go-cron patterns — named jobs, runtime updates, per-entry context, resilience wrappers, observability, FakeClock testing, bitmask parser options
- **Resilience Patterns**: go-cron's built-in retry/circuit-breaker/timeout wrappers for scheduled jobs
- **Docker Integration**: Optimized Docker client patterns, buffer pooling for performance, container execution patterns
- **LDAP Integration**: Active Directory patterns, user and group management, authentication flows
- **Testing Strategy**: Build tags for test isolation (unit/integration/e2e), race-condition and Fiber v2 test gotchas, resource isolation
- **Observability**: Prometheus metrics integration, structured logging, error tracking

## Installation

### Marketplace (Recommended)

Add the [Netresearch marketplace](https://github.com/netresearch/claude-code-marketplace) once, then browse and install skills:

```bash
# Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add netresearch/claude-code-marketplace
```

### npx ([skills.sh](https://skills.sh))

Install with any [Agent Skills](https://agentskills.io)-compatible agent:

```bash
npx skills add https://github.com/netresearch/go-development-skill --skill go-development
```

### Download Release

Download the [latest release](https://github.com/netresearch/go-development-skill/releases/latest) and extract to your agent's skills directory.

### Git Clone

```bash
git clone https://github.com/netresearch/go-development-skill.git
```

### Composer (PHP Projects)

```bash
composer require netresearch/go-development-skill
```

Requires [netresearch/composer-agent-skill-plugin](https://github.com/netresearch/composer-agent-skill-plugin).
## Usage

This skill is automatically triggered when:

- Building Go services or CLI applications
- Implementing job scheduling or task orchestration
- Integrating with Docker API
- Building LDAP/Active Directory clients
- Designing resilient systems with retry logic
- Setting up comprehensive test suites

Example queries:
- "Create a resilient job scheduler in Go"
- "Implement Docker container execution with retry logic"
- "Build LDAP authentication client"
- "Set up graceful shutdown for Go service"
- "Implement buffer pooling for high-throughput operations"
- "Create comprehensive test suite with build tags"

## Structure

```
go-development-skill/
├── SKILL.md                              # Skill metadata and core patterns
└── references/
    ├── architecture.md                   # Package structure, state mutation completeness
    ├── cron-scheduling.md                # go-cron: named jobs, updates, context, resilience
    ├── resilience.md                     # Pointer to go-cron's resilience wrappers
    ├── docker.md                         # Docker client patterns
    ├── ldap.md                           # LDAP/Active Directory integration
    ├── testing.md                        # Build tags, race and Fiber v2 gotchas
    ├── linting.md                        # golangci-lint v2 configuration
    ├── api-design.md                     # Enum/status defensive handling
    ├── fuzz-testing.md                   # Go fuzzing patterns, security seeds
    ├── mutation-testing.md               # Gremlins test quality measurement
    ├── makefile.md                       # Standard Makefile interface
    └── modernization.md                  # Go 1.26 modernizers, go fix, errors.AsType
```

## Expertise Areas

### Architecture Patterns
- Package structure conventions
- State mutation completeness (avoiding partial updates)

### Cron Scheduling (go-cron)
- Named jobs with O(1) lookup
- Runtime updates (UpsertJob, UpdateSchedule, UpdateEntry)
- Per-entry context with automatic cancellation
- Resilience wrappers (retry, circuit breaker, timeout)
- Observability hooks (Prometheus integration)
- FakeClock for deterministic testing
- Missed job catch-up policies

### Resilience Patterns
- Retry, circuit-breaker, and timeout wrappers built into go-cron for scheduled jobs
- Standard library-backed patterns (rate limiting, graceful shutdown) outside the job scheduler

### Docker Integration
- Optimized Docker client patterns
- Buffer pooling for performance
- Container execution patterns

### LDAP Integration
- Active Directory patterns
- User and group management
- Authentication flows

### Testing Strategy
- Build tags for test isolation (unit/integration/e2e)
- Race-condition gotchas and fixes
- Resource isolation (one instance per test)
- Fiber v2 test patterns

## Running Tests

```bash
# Unit tests only (default)
go test ./...

# With integration tests
go test -tags=integration ./...

# Full suite including E2E
go test -tags=e2e ./...

# With race detector
go test -race ./...

# With coverage
go test -coverprofile=coverage.out ./...
go tool cover -html=coverage.out
```

## Quality Gates

### Recommended Tooling

```makefile
.PHONY: dev-check
dev-check: fmt vet lint security test

fmt:
	gofmt -w $(shell git ls-files '*.go')
	gci write .

vet:
	go vet ./...

lint:
	golangci-lint run --timeout 5m

security:
	gosec ./...
	gitleaks detect

test:
	go test -race ./...
```

## Related Skills

This skill focuses on Go code patterns and quality. For complete project setup:

| Skill | Purpose |
|-------|---------|
| `github-project` | Repository setup, branch protection, auto-merge workflows |
| `enterprise-readiness` | OpenSSF Scorecard, SLSA provenance, signed releases |
| `security-audit` | OWASP Top 10, CVE analysis, security hardening |

## License

This project uses split licensing:

- **Code** (scripts, workflows, configs): [MIT](https://github.com/netresearch/go-development-skill/tree/HEAD/LICENSE-MIT)
- **Content** (skill definitions, documentation, references): [CC-BY-SA-4.0](https://github.com/netresearch/go-development-skill/blob/HEAD/LICENSE-CC-BY-SA-4.0)

See the individual license files for full terms.
## Credits

Developed and maintained by [Netresearch DTT GmbH](https://www.netresearch.de/).

---

**Made with ❤️ for Open Source by [Netresearch](https://www.netresearch.de/)**