go-config/docs/development.md

title	description
Development	How to build, test, and contribute to go-config.

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.26+
• Core CLI (core binary) for running tests and quality checks
• The Go workspace at ~/Code/go.work should include this module

Running Tests

cd /path/to/go-config

# All tests
core go test

# Single test
core go test --run TestConfig_Get_Good

# With coverage
core go cov
core go cov --open   # opens HTML report in browser

Test Naming Convention

Tests follow the _Good / _Bad / _Ugly suffix pattern:

Suffix	Meaning
_Good	Happy path -- expected success
_Bad	Expected error conditions
_Ugly	Panics, edge cases, corruption

Mock Medium

Tests use io.NewMockMedium() to avoid touching the real filesystem. Pre-populate it by writing directly to the Files map:

m := io.NewMockMedium()
m.Files["/tmp/test/config.yaml"] = "app:\n  name: existing\n"

cfg, err := config.New(config.WithMedium(m), config.WithPath("/tmp/test/config.yaml"))

This pattern keeps tests fast, deterministic, and parallelisable.

Quality Checks

# Format, vet, lint, test in one pass
core go qa

# Full suite (adds race detector, vulnerability scan, security audit)
core go qa full

# Individual commands
core go fmt
core go vet
core go lint

Code Style

• UK English in comments and documentation (colour, organisation, centre)
• declare(strict_types=1) equivalent: all functions have explicit parameter and return types
• Error wrapping: use coreerr.E(caller, message, underlying) from go-log
• Formatting: standard gofmt / goimports

Project Structure

go-config/
    .core/
        build.yaml       # Build configuration (targets, flags)
        release.yaml     # Release configuration (changelog rules)
    config.go            # Config struct, New(), Get/Set/Commit, Load/Save
    config_test.go       # Tests
    env.go               # Env() iterator, LoadEnv() (deprecated)
    service.go           # Framework service wrapper (Startable)
    go.mod
    go.sum
    docs/
        index.md         # This documentation
        architecture.md  # Internal design
        development.md   # Build and contribution guide

Adding a New Feature

1. Write the test first -- add a TestFeatureName_Good (and _Bad if error paths exist) to config_test.go.
2. Implement -- keep the dual-viper invariant: writes go to both v and f; reads come from v; persistence comes from f.
3. Run QA -- core go qa must pass before committing.
4. Update docs -- if the change affects public API, update docs/index.md and docs/architecture.md.

Interface Compliance

Config and Service both satisfy core.Config. Service additionally satisfies core.Startable. These are enforced at compile time:

var _ core.Config    = (*Config)(nil)
var _ core.Config    = (*Service)(nil)
var _ core.Startable = (*Service)(nil)

If you add a new interface method upstream in core/go, the compiler will tell you what to implement here.

Commit Guidelines

• Use conventional commits: type(scope): description
• Include Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> when pair-programming with Claude
• Push via SSH: ssh://git@forge.lthn.ai:2223/core/go-config.git

Licence

EUPL-1.2