Which Go library to use for a given job: a vetted shortlist by category, and an honest answer when the standard library already covers it.
WHEN TO USE
SCOPE
USE FOR
Pick a vetted library for a task like web routing, logging, or messaging.
Decide whether the standard library already covers a need before adding a dependency.
Check a candidate library's maintenance status and importer count before recommending it.
NOT FOR
Not for a specific library's detailed API once you've already chosen it.
Not for go.mod mechanics, dependency upgrades, or vulnerability audits.
This is a saved copy of the skill's SKILL.md instructions. It may differ from the upstream file or the version you install.
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:
Production-readiness - Mature, well-maintained libraries with active communities
This skill is not exhaustive — refer to library documentation and code examples for more information:
When exploring a candidate library, → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-pkg-go-dev skill (godig) for docs, symbols, versions, importers, and known vulnerabilities — prefer it over Context7 for Go package facts.
Once a candidate is added to your build, → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-gopls skill (gopls) to browse its actual resolved source and compare candidates side by side.
Context7 remains a fallback for docs not indexed on pkg.go.dev.
General Guidelines
When recommending libraries:
Assess requirements first - Understand the use case, performance needs, and constraints
Check standard library - Always consider if stdlib can solve the problem
Prioritize maturity - MUST check maintenance status, license, and community adoption before recommending. Use a module's imported-by count on pkg.go.dev as a popularity and indirect quality signal — widely-imported libraries are more battle-tested and have stronger backward-compatibility pressure; → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-pkg-go-dev skill to count importers and compare alternatives
Consider complexity - Simpler solutions are usually better in Go
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-pkg-go-dev skill to vet a candidate library on pkg.go.dev — versions, importers, licenses, and known vulnerabilities — before adopting it
→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-samber-do skill for samber/do dependency injection details
→ See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-samber-hot skill for samber/hot in-memory caching 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
No requirements beyond installing this skill were found.
Listed as free
Connected services may require an account or charge fees.
Setup details
The README mentions source builds, cloning, containers, hosting, OAuth, service accounts, or cloud projects.
Run this outside your AI tool, using Node.js 22.20.0 or newer. Skills CLI 1.7.2 skips skill selection; prompts cancel installation without an interactive terminal. If choosing Project when asked about installation scope, open your project's folder before running this.
Install checklist
Check selected tools if a picker appears; Claude Code may be unchecked under Additional agents. ↑/↓ moves, Space toggles selections, Enter confirms.
Without a tool picker, check Installing to: for your intended tool. Stop if it names a different tool.
If asked, choose Symlink (Recommended) for shared files or Copy to all agents for separate copies; review the summary before confirming installation.
Install the find-skills skill? defaults to Yes, adding another skill for all projects. Choose No if you don't want that extra installation.
Skills CLI 1.7.2 sends install data to skills.sh by default, including the source, skill names, target tools and file details; GitHub sources are reported only when GitHub confirms the repository is public, while other remote sources can also be reported. Confirmed-public GitHub sources also trigger a security-audit request. Before installing, set the environment variable DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 to disable both.
After installing for Claude Code, open it in the installation project if you chose Project; Global makes the skill available across projects on this computer. Once Claude Code loads the skill, its description helps Claude decide when to use it.
If installation created a top-level skills folder that did not exist when your Claude Code session started, run /reload-skills in that session. Run it again after later changes in that folder.
Install the whole plugin
This route installs the Samber Golang Skills plugin package selected for your AI tool.
Add Samuel's marketplace, then install the plugin
Type both lines inside a Claude Code session, not at your shell prompt. The marketplace is a separate repository of Samuel Berthe's, samber/cc, which also lists his other plugins. The second line opens the details of cc-skills-golang, which carries this repository's 46 Go skills; pick one of the install options shown and Claude Code installs it.
01
/plugin marketplace add samber/cc
02
/plugin install cc-skills-golang@samber
Run it in your terminal. It copies the whole repository, with its 46 skills, into ~/.openclaw/skills/cc-skills-golang, OpenClaw's skills folder in your home folder. To install it for one OpenClaw workspace instead, Samuel gives ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/cc-skills-golang as the folder.
Run it in your terminal, not inside Gemini CLI; installing from GitHub needs git on your computer. It installs the repository, with its 46 skills, as a Gemini CLI extension. To update it later, run gemini extensions update cc-skills-golang.
Run it in your terminal. It copies the whole repository, with its 46 skills, into ~/.cursor/skills/cc-skills-golang, Cursor's skills folder in your home folder.
Type it in an interactive GitHub Copilot CLI session, not at your shell prompt. It installs the repository straight from GitHub as a plugin, with its 46 skills and no marketplace to add first.
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.Read full description
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.Read full description
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).Read full description
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.Read full description
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.Read full description
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.Read full description
