# Go CLI writing

> Use when building or refactoring a Go command-line tool's flags, subcommands or config.

Builds and reviews Go command-line applications with idiomatic package layout, command parsing, logging, config loading, scriptable output, and behavior-first tests. Use when creating or refactoring `main.go`, command trees, flags, subcommands, help text, config handling, or CLI UX in Go.

## Facts

- Type: Agent skill
- Discipline: Engineering
- Author: Lachlan Donald (https://github.com/lox)
- Upstream: https://github.com/lox/agent-skills/blob/main/go-cli-writing/SKILL.md
- Source file: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lox/agent-skills/main/go-cli-writing/SKILL.md (5538 bytes, sha256:49f2e83f090bcd8886b517e41469024956bb8988d82398f9e809d6fe5c0dce40)
- Licence: none declared by the repo
- Upstream copy last changed: 2026-09-17
- Status: listed, not yet ruled on by the curator

## Use it

I want to use the Go CLI writing skill by Lachlan Donald.
This is what it does, in the author's own words: Builds and reviews Go command-line applications with idiomatic package layout, command parsing, logging, config loading, scriptable output, and behavior-first tests. Use when creating or refactoring `main.go`, command trees, flags, subcommands, help text, config handling, or CLI UX in Go.
Download the whole folder at https://github.com/lox/agent-skills/tree/main/go-cli-writing, SKILL.md and every file beside it, into your skills directory: ~/.claude/skills/go-cli-writing/ for Claude Code, ~/.agents/skills/go-cli-writing/ for Codex, ~/.cursor/skills/go-cli-writing/ for Cursor. Get it from the author's repo, not from startupskills.dev.
Then tell me the path you installed it to and how to invoke it.

Nothing here is vendored: install from the author's repo. This file carries none of the author's file.

## Links

- Page: https://startupskills.dev/lox/go-cli-writing
- Author: https://startupskills.dev/lox
- Index: https://startupskills.dev/llms.txt

## The file

Not reproduced here: the repo does not license republication. Read it on the author's GitHub:
https://github.com/lox/agent-skills/blob/main/go-cli-writing/SKILL.md