Agent Skills for Go Teams
Go teams increasingly use AI assistants for code review, scaffolding, and incident triage.
Without guardrails, agents suggest patterns from training data that conflict with your module layout, error handling, or security policy.
Agent Skills package your team's conventions into SKILL.md playbooks the assistant reads before acting.
Agent Skills Basics shows structure and ten invocation examples; sibling skill pages cover concurrency, modules, APIs, testing, profiling, operators, and WASM builds.
Summary
- An Agent Skill is a structured instruction file - typically
SKILL.md- that tells an AI assistant what to do, what inputs to collect, what outputs to produce, and what it must never automate without human approval. - Insight: Go's simplicity hides sharp edges: goroutine leaks,
contextmisuse,govulncheckgaps, and operator RBAC mistakes are expensive when an agent drafts code or checklists without your team's gates. - Key Concepts: SKILL.md, inputs/outputs, guardrails, stack pin, decision domain, verification commands, ADR alignment.
- When to Use: PR review assistance, module security sweeps, handler audits, benchmark scaffolding, operator reconciler review, WASM target validation, and onboarding engineers to assisted workflows.
- Limitations/Trade-offs: Skills accelerate repeatable checklists; they do not replace human docs, on-call runbooks, or production authority. Stale skills are worse than no skills.
- Related Topics: ADRs,
golangci-lintpolicy, table-driven tests, pprof workflows, controller-runtime patterns, TinyGo targets.
Foundations
Think of an Agent Skill as an operational contract for assisted development.
Your human-readable cookbooks - net/http Basics, Go Testing Basics, Go Security Basics - teach concepts and edge cases.
A skill compresses how your team executes those concepts under time pressure: which commands to run, which files to inspect, which findings block merge.
Skills usually live beside the code they govern:
.cursor/skills/
├── go-concurrency-review/
│ └── SKILL.md
├── go-module-audit/
│ └── SKILL.md
├── go-api-design-review/
│ └── SKILL.md
└── go-operator-review/
└── SKILL.mdOrg-wide skills (incident triage, module policy) can live in a central registry; project-specific skills stay in the repo so go.mod, linter config, and ADR links stay accurate.
Every skill should open with a stack pin so agents do not cite Go 1.20 patterns when you ship on Go 1.26:
## Stack pin
- Go 1.26.x (verify patch at build)
- golangci-lint (team linter set - verify at build)
- Framework: chi / stdlib net/http per ADR-014Mechanics & Interactions
A typical skill invocation flows through four phases:
Human prompt Agent reads SKILL.md Agent drafts plan
| | |
v v v
"Review handler" Collect inputs checklist Commands + findings
| | |
+------------------------+------------------------+
v
Human reviews like a junior PR
v
go test ./... govulncheck golangci-lint run
Inputs force the agent to gather go.mod, affected packages, ADR references, and CI config before proposing changes.
Outputs must be verifiable: go test commands, review checklists, diff suggestions - not prose summaries alone.
Guardrails are the highest-value section: block go get -u without policy, forbid merging without context deadlines on outbound calls, require RBAC review before operator scaffold changes.
Skills compose with human docs rather than replacing them.
The skill output is a plan; the doc explains why the plan looks that way.
| Artifact | Role | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Human doc page | Concepts, APIs, FAQs | Docs maintainers |
| SKILL.md | Executable checklist for agents | Team + platform |
| ADR | Architectural decision record | Tech lead |
| CI config | Enforces gates skills reference | Platform |
Advanced Considerations & Applications
Decision domain splitting keeps guardrails sharp.
A monolithic "Go skill" dilutes concurrency review into API design and produces unsafe automation.
This section's sibling pages each own one domain: Go Concurrency Review Skill, Go Module & Security Audit Skill, Go API Design Review Skill, and others.
Version drift is the main failure mode.
Refresh skills when you bump Go toolchain, change golangci-lint linters, adopt a new router per Writing ADRs for Go Architecture Decisions, or close a postmortem with a missed gate.
CI alignment makes skills durable.
If the skill says go test -race ./... but CI skips race builds, engineers learn to ignore the skill.
Mirror verification commands in GitHub Actions or your pipeline.
| Approach | Strength | Weakness | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repo-local skills | Accurate go.mod, layout, ADR paths | Per-repo maintenance | Services and libraries |
| Org registry skills | Shared incident and audit playbooks | Needs explicit stack pin per project | Platform and security teams |
| Ad-hoc prompts | Fast one-offs | No guardrails, inconsistent | Spikes only |
| Human docs only | Authoritative depth | Slow for checklist-style work | Learning and reference |
Common Misconceptions
-
"Skills replace our style guide." - Skills operationalize the style guide for agents; Coding Standards and Doc Conventions for Teams stays the source of truth for prose rules and naming.
-
"Any SKILL.md from the internet fits our repo." - Generic skills ignore your module path, internal packages, and linter set. Fork and pin every imported skill.
-
"Agents can run
go get -usafely." - Without guardrails, agents bump transitive deps past your MVS policy. Module audit skills exist to block that. -
"One skill per repository is enough." - Operators, WASM builds, and HTTP handlers need different checklists. Split by decision domain.
-
"Skills eliminate code review." - Treat skill output like a junior engineer PR: review before merge, same as any assisted draft.
FAQs
What is the difference between an Agent Skill and a Cursor rule?
Cursor rules apply broadly to every session. Agent Skills are invoked for a specific task domain with explicit inputs, outputs, and guardrails. Use both: rules for global tone; skills for release, audit, and review workflows.
Where should SKILL.md files live in a Go monorepo?
Project-specific skills in .cursor/skills/ at the module root. For go work workspaces, either one skill set at the workspace root with per-module inputs, or nested skills per module with clear trigger phrases.
Should skills reference internal ADRs?
Yes. Link ADR paths in a ## References section so agents align handler patterns, error types, and dependency policy with recorded decisions.
How do skills relate to golangci-lint?
Skills tell agents which linters block merge and how to fix common findings. CI runs golangci-lint run; the skill should not suggest disabling linters without an ADR exception.
Can skills automate govulncheck fixes?
Skills may draft go get commands for known CVEs. Human approval is required before merging dependency changes - especially major version bumps.
When should we invoke a skill versus read human docs?
Invoke skills at decision points: pre-merge review, security sweep, incident triage. Read human docs when learning concepts or exploring APIs for the first time.
How often should we refresh Go skills?
After every Go minor bump, linter config change, postmortem action item, or ADR supersession. Re-run verification commands listed in the skill on refresh.
Do skills work for Kubernetes operators?
Yes. Go Kubernetes Operator Review Skill covers reconcilers, finalizers, webhooks, and RBAC - domains where generic Go advice fails.
Should skills pin third-party framework versions?
Pin what your manifest and ADRs mandate: chi, gin, echo, gRPC-Go, controller-runtime, TinyGo, wazero. Mark "verify at build" when you float on latest compatible.
What makes a skill invocation fail?
Missing inputs (go.mod, package list, test command), outputs that are prose-only without commands, or guardrails skipped. Reject and re-prompt with the inputs checklist from Agent Skills Basics.
Related
- Agent Skills Basics - SKILL.md structure with ten examples
- Go Concurrency Review Skill - goroutine and context audits
- Go Module & Security Audit Skill - govulncheck workflow
- Go API Design Review Skill - handler and error conventions
- Agent Skills Best Practices - 25-item team summary
- Writing ADRs for Go Architecture Decisions - align skills with recorded decisions
Stack versions: This page was written for Go 1.26.x (Green Tea GC default, go fix modernizers - verify patch at build), chi (latest - verify at build), gin (latest - verify at build), echo (latest - verify at build), google.golang.org/grpc (latest - verify at build), sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime (latest - verify at build), kubebuilder (latest - verify at build), tinygo (latest - verify board targets at build), wazero (latest - verify at build), and golangci-lint (latest - verify linter set at build).