Go Defensive Programming Patterns Skill

Go Defensive Programming Patterns

Compatibility: Crypto examples may use crypto/rand.Text, which requires Go 1.24+.

Resource Routing

references/BOUNDARY-COPYING.md - Read when copying slices/maps across API boundaries.
references/GLOBAL-STATE.md - Read when introducing or removing package globals.
references/MUST-FUNCTIONS.md - Read when deciding whether a panic-on-error helper is acceptable.
references/PANIC-RECOVER.md - Read when evaluating panic, recover, or crash containment.
references/TIME-ENUMS-TAGS.md - Read when handling time types, enum zero values, or struct tags.

Defensive Checklist Priority

When hardening code at API boundaries, check in this order:

Reviewing an API boundary?
├─ 1. Error handling     → Return errors; don't panic (see go-error-handling)
├─ 2. Input validation   → Copy slices/maps received from callers
├─ 3. Output safety      → Copy slices/maps before returning to callers
├─ 4. Resource cleanup   → Use defer for Close/Unlock/Cancel
├─ 5. Interface checks   → Route compile-time assertions to go-interfaces
├─ 6. Time correctness   → Use time.Time and time.Duration, not int/float
├─ 7. Enum safety        → Start iota at 1 so zero-value is invalid
└─ 8. Crypto safety      → crypto/rand for keys, never math/rand

Quick Reference

| Pattern | Rule | Details | |---------|------|---------| | Boundary copies | Copy slices/maps on receive and return | BOUNDARY-COPYING.md | | Defer cleanup | defer f.Close() right after os.Open | Below | | Interface check | Compile-time satisfaction assertion | See go-interfaces | | Time types | time.Time / time.Duration, never raw int | TIME-ENUMS-TAGS.md | | Enum start | iota + 1 so zero = invalid | Below | | Crypto rand | crypto/rand for keys, never math/rand | Below | | Must functions | Only at init; panic on failure | MUST-FUNCTIONS.md | | Panic/recover | Never expose panics across packages | PANIC-RECOVER.md | | Mutable globals | Replace with dependency injection | Below |

Verify Interface Compliance

Route compile-time interface assertions to go-interfaces. Use this skill only to notice API-boundary robustness risk; the interface skill owns when an assertion is appropriate and the exact assertion shape.

Copy Slices and Maps at Boundaries

Slices and maps contain pointers to underlying data. Copy at API boundaries to prevent unintended modifications.

// Receiving: copy incoming slice
d.trips = make([]Trip, len(trips))
copy(d.trips, trips)

// Returning: copy map before returning
result := make(map[string]int, len(s.counters))
for k, v := range s.counters { result[k] = v }

Defer to Clean Up

Use defer to clean up resources (files, locks). Avoids missed cleanup on multiple return paths.

p.Lock()
defer p.Unlock()

if p.count < 10 {
  return p.count
}
p.count++
return p.count

Defer overhead is negligible. Place defer f.Close() immediately after os.Open for clarity. Arguments to deferred functions are evaluated when defer executes, not when the function runs. Multiple defers execute in LIFO order.

Struct Field Tags

Advisory: Always add explicit field tags to structs that are marshaled or unmarshaled.

type User struct {
    Name  string `json:"name"  yaml:"name"`
    Email string `json:"email" yaml:"email"`
}

Field tags are a serialization contract — renaming a struct field without updating the tag silently breaks wire compatibility. Treat tags as part of the public API for any type that crosses a serialization boundary.

Start Enums at One

Start enums at non-zero to distinguish uninitialized from valid values.

const (
  Add Operation = iota + 1  // Add=1, zero value = uninitialized
  Subtract
  Multiply
)

Exception: When zero is the sensible default (e.g., LogToStdout = iota).

Time, Struct Tags, and Embedding

Avoid Mutable Globals

Inject dependencies instead of mutating package-level variables. This makes code testable without global save/restore.

type signer struct {
  now func() time.Time  // injected; tests replace with fixed time
}

func newSigner() *signer {
  return &signer{now: time.Now}
}

Crypto Rand

Do not use math/rand or math/rand/v2 to generate keys — this is a security concern. Time-seeded generators have predictable output.

import "crypto/rand"

func Key() string { return rand.Text() }

For text output, use crypto/rand.Text directly, or encode random bytes with encoding/hex or encoding/base64.

Panic and Recover

Use panic only for truly unrecoverable situations. Library functions should avoid panic.

func safelyDo(work *Work) {
    defer func() {
        if err := recover(); err != nil {
            log.Println("work failed:", err)
        }
    }()
    do(work)
}

Key rules:

Never expose panics across package boundaries — always convert to errors
Acceptable to panic in init() if a library truly cannot set itself up
Use recover to isolate panics in server goroutine handlers

Must Functions

Must functions panic on error — use them only during program initialization where failure means the program cannot run.

var validID = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-z][a-z0-9-]{0,62}$`)
var tmpl = template.Must(template.ParseFiles("index.html"))

Related Skills

Error handling: See go-error-handling when choosing between returning errors and panicking, or wrapping errors at boundaries
Concurrency safety: See go-concurrency when protecting shared state with mutexes, atomics, or channels
Interface checks: See go-interfaces when adding compile-time interface satisfaction checks
Data structure copying: See go-data-structures when working with slice/map internals or pointer aliasing

Agent Skills: Go Defensive Programming Patterns

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