Building REST APIs with Go

Go’s standard library is powerful enough for most HTTP servers, but Chi adds conveniences for real applications.

Setup

go mod init myapi
go get github.com/go-chi/chi/v5

Basic Server

package main

import (
    "encoding/json"
    "net/http"

    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5"
    "github.com/go-chi/chi/v5/middleware"
)

func main() {
    r := chi.NewRouter()
    r.Use(middleware.Logger)
    r.Use(middleware.Recoverer)

    r.Get("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
        w.Write([]byte("ok"))
    })

    http.ListenAndServe(":8080", r)
}

RESTful Routes

r.Route("/api/v1/users", func(r chi.Router) {
    r.Get("/", listUsers)
    r.Post("/", createUser)
    r.Get("/{id}", getUser)
    r.Put("/{id}", updateUser)
    r.Delete("/{id}", deleteUser)
})

JSON Response Helper

func respondJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, status int, data interface{}) {
    w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    w.WriteHeader(status)
    json.NewEncoder(w).Encode(data)
}

Best Practices

Version your API (/api/v1/...)
Use proper HTTP status codes
Validate input data
Handle errors consistently
Add request timeouts