Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Golang Error Handling Standards

Standards for error wrapping, checking, and definition in Golang. Use when wrapping errors, defining sentinel errors, or handling errors idiomatically in Go. (triggers: fmt.Errorf, errors.Is, errors.As, error wrapping, sentinel error, error handling)

UncategorizedID: hoangnguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/golang-error-handling

Repository

hoangnguyen0403/agent-skills-standard
HoangNguyen0403License: Apache-2.0
362103

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pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/HoangNguyen0403/agent-skills-standard/tree/HEAD/skills/golang/golang-error-handling

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skills/golang/golang-error-handling/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
golang-error-handling
Description
"Standards for error wrapping, checking, and definition in Golang. Use when wrapping errors, defining sentinel errors, or handling errors idiomatically in Go. (triggers: fmt.Errorf, errors.Is, errors.As, error wrapping, sentinel error, error handling)"

Golang Error Handling Standards

Priority: P0 (CRITICAL)

Principles

  • Errors are Values: Handle them like any other value.
  • Handle Once: Log OR Return. Never Log AND Return (creates duplicate logs).
  • Add Context: Don't just return err bubble up. Wrap it with context: fmt.Errorf("failed to open file: %w", err).
  • Use Standard Lib: Go 1.13+ errors package (Is, As, Unwrap) is sufficient. Avoid pkg/errors (deprecated).

Guidelines

  • Sentinel Errors: Expoted, fixed errors (io.EOF, sql.ErrNoRows). Use errors.Is(err, io.EOF).
  • Error Types: Structs implementing error. Use errors.As(err, &target).
  • Panic: Only for unrecoverable startup errors.

Anti-Patterns

  • No bare return err: Wrap with fmt.Errorf("context: %w", err) to preserve call chain.
  • No string error checks: Use errors.Is/errors.As; string comparison is brittle.
  • No swallowed errors: Never assign errors to _; always handle or propagate.

References