---
title: "Go Concurrency Best Practices"
description: "Go's concurrency model is built on goroutines and channels. Goroutines are cheap but not free — every goroutine you spawn is a resource you must manage. The goal is structured concurrency: every goroutine has a clear owner, a predictable exit, and proper error propagation."
type: skill
canonical_url: https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com/skills/concurrency-2
source: "Claudary"
difficulty: intermediate
author: "Claude Code Knowledge Pack"
date: 2026-07-10T11:18:44.732Z
license: CC-BY-4.0
attribution: "Go Concurrency Best Practices — Claudary (https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com/skills/concurrency-2)"
---

# Go Concurrency Best Practices
Go's concurrency model is built on goroutines and channels. Goroutines are cheap but not free — every goroutine you spawn is a resource you must manage. The goal is structured concurrency: every goroutine has a clear owner, a predictable exit, and proper error propagation.

## Overview

# Go Concurrency Best Practices

Go's concurrency model is built on goroutines and channels. Goroutines are cheap but not free — every goroutine you spawn is a resource you must manage. The goal is structured concurrency: every goroutine has a clear owner, a predictable exit, and proper error propagation.

## Core Principles

1. **Every goroutine must have a clear exit** — without a shutdown mechanism (context, done channel, WaitGroup), they leak and accumulate until the process crashes
2. **Share memory by communicating** — channels transfer ownership explicitly; mutexes protect shared state but make ownership implicit
3. **Send copies, not pointers** on channels — sending pointers creates invisible shared memory, defeating the purpose of channels
4. **Only the sender closes a channel** — closing from the receiver side panics if the sender writes after close
5. **Specify channel direction** (`chan<-`, `<-chan`) — the compiler prevents misuse at build time
6. **Default to unbuffered channels** — larger buffers mask backpressure; use them only with measured justification
7. **Always include `ctx.Done()` in select** — without it, goroutines leak after caller cancellation
8. **Never use `time.After` in loops** — each call creates a timer that lives until it fires, accumulating memory. Use `time.NewTimer` + `Reset`
9. **Track goroutine leaks in tests** with `go.uber.org/goleak`

For detailed channel/select code examples, see Channels and Select Patterns.

## Channel vs Mutex vs Atomic

| Scenario | Use | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Passing data between goroutines | Channel | Communicates ownership transfer |
| Coordinating goroutine lifecycle | Channel + context | Clean shutdown with select |
| Protecting shared struct fields | `sync.Mutex` / `sync.RWMutex` | Simple critical sections |
| Simple counters, flags | `sync/atomic` | Lock-free, lower overhead |
| Many readers, few writers on a map | `sync.Map` | Optimized for read-heavy workloads. **Concurrent map read/write causes a hard crash** |
| Caching expensive computations | `sync.Once` / `singleflight` | Execute once or deduplicate |

## WaitGroup vs errgroup

| Need | Use | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wait for goroutines, errors not needed | `sync.WaitGroup` | Fire-and-forget |
| Wait + collect first error | `errgroup.Group` | Error propagation |
| Wait + cancel siblings on first error | `errgroup.WithContext` | Context cancellation on error |
| Wait + limit concurrency | `errgroup.SetLimit(n)` | Built-in worker pool |

## Sync Primitives Quick Reference

| Primitive | Use case | Key notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `sync.Mutex` | Protect shared state | Keep critical sections short; never hold across I/O |
| `sync.RWMutex` | Many readers, few writers | Never upgrade RLock to Lock (deadlock) |
| `sync/atomic` | Simple counters, flags | Prefer typed atomics (Go 1.19+): `atomic.Int64`, `atomic.Bool` |
| `sync.Map` | Concurrent map, read-heavy | No explicit locking; use `RWMutex`+map when writes dominate |
| `sync.Pool` | Reuse temporary objects | Always `Reset()` before `Put()`; reduces GC pressure |
| `sync.Once` | One-time initialization | Go 1.21+: `OnceFunc`, `OnceValue`, `OnceValues` |
| `sync.WaitGroup` | Wait for goroutine completion | `Add` before `go`; Go 1.24+: `wg.Go()` simplifies usage |
| `x/sync/singleflight` | Deduplicate concurrent calls | Cache stampede prevention |
| `x/sync/errgroup` | Goroutine group + errors | `SetLimit(n)` replaces hand-rolled worker pools |

For detailed examples and anti-patterns, see Sync Primitives Deep Dive.

## Concurrency Checklist

Before spawning a goroutine, answer:

- [ ] **How will it exit?** — context cancellation, channel close, or explicit signal
- [ ] **Can I signal it to stop?** — pass `context.Context` or done channel
- [ ] **Can I wait for it?** — `sync.WaitGroup` or `errgroup`
- [ ] **Who owns the channels?** — creator/sender owns and closes
- [ ] **Should this be synchronous instead?** — don't add concurrency without measured need

## Pipelines and Worker Pools

For pipeline patterns (fan-out/fan-in, bounded workers, generator chains, Go 1.23+ iterators, `samber/ro`), see Pipelines and Worker Pools.

## Parallelizing Concurrency Audits

When auditing concurrency across a large codebase, use up to 5 parallel sub-agents (Agent tool):

1. Find all goroutine spawns (`go func`, `go method`) and verify shutdown mechanisms
2. Search for mutable globals and shared state without synchronization
3. Audit channel usage — ownership, direction, closure, buffer sizes
4. Find `time.After` in loops, missing `ctx.Done()` in select, unbounded spawning
5. Check mutex usage, `sync.Map`, atomics, and thread-safety documentation

## Common Mistakes

| Mistake | Fix |
| --- | --- |
| Fire-and-forget goroutine | Provide stop mechanism (context, done channel) |
| Closing channel from receiver | Only the sender closes |
| `time.After` in hot loop | Reuse `time.NewTimer` + `Reset` |
| Missing `ctx.Done()` in select | Always select on context to allow cancellation |
| Unbounded goroutine spawning | Use `errgroup.SetLimit(n)` or semaphore |
| Sharing pointer via channel | Send copies or immutable values |
| `wg.Add` inside goroutine | Call `Add` before `go` — `Wait` may return early otherwise |
| Forgetting `-race` in CI | Always run `go test -race ./...` |
| Mutex held across I/O | Keep critical sections short |

## Cross-References

- -> See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-performance` skill for false sharing, cache-line padding, `sync.Pool` hot-path patterns
- -> See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-context` skill for cancellation propagation and timeout patterns
- -> See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-safety` skill for concurrent map access and race condition prevention
- -> See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-troubleshooting` skill for debugging goroutine leaks and deadlocks
- -> See `samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-design-patterns` skill for graceful shutdown patterns

## References

- [Go Concurrency Patterns: Pipelines](https://go.dev/blog/pipelines)
- [Effective Go: Concurrency](https://go.dev/doc/effective_go#concurrency)

---

Source: [Claudary](https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com/skills/concurrency-2) · https://claudary.paisolsolutions.com