Golang Context

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Designing context propagation across layers
• Debugging leaked contexts
• Choosing Background/TODO/WithoutCancel

Example prompts

• “/golang-context”

Requirements

• Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Designed for Claude Code, Codex or similar harness, and for projects using Golang.
• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Edit, Write, Glob, Grep, Bash(go:*), Bash(golangci-lint:*), Bash(git:*), Agent

Workflow steps

11 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1The same context MUST be propagated through the entire request lifecycle: HTTP handler → service → DB → external APIs
2. 2ctx MUST be the first parameter, named ctx context.Context
3. 3NEVER store context in a struct — pass explicitly through function parameters
4. 4NEVER pass nil context — use context.TODO() if unsure
5. 5cancel() MUST be called on all control-flow paths for WithCancel/WithTimeout/WithDeadline, unless ownership of the context and cancel…
6. 6context.Background() MUST only be used at the top level (main, init, tests)
7. 7Use context.TODO() as a placeholder when you know a context is needed but don't have one yet
8. 8NEVER create a new context.Background() in the middle of a request path
9. 9Context value keys MUST be unexported types to prevent collisions
10. 10Context values MUST only carry request-scoped metadata — NEVER function parameters
11. 11Use context.WithoutCancel (Go 1.21+) when spawning background work that must outlive the parent request

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8876467. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Edit
  • Write
  • Glob
  • Grep
  • Bash(go:*)
  • Bash(golangci-lint:*)
  • Bash(git:*)
  • Agent

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are go).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

• Compatibility

  Designed for Claude Code, Codex or similar harness, and for projects using Golang.

  From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Golang Context loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.3k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 77 tokens; SKILL.md has 470 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~77

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.3k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~4.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from context-labs/whip at commit 8876467, republished under its MIT licence (© context-labs). 470 words, ~1,308 tokens.

name

golang-context

description

Idiomatic context.Context usage in Golang — cancellation, timeouts/deadlines, request-scoped values, WithoutCancel for background work. Use when designing context propagation across layers, debugging leaked contexts, or choosing Background/TODO/WithoutCancel. Not for code merely accepting ctx.

allowed-tools

Read, Edit, Write, Glob, Grep, Bash(go:*), Bash(golangci-lint:*), Bash(git:*), Agent

compatibility

Designed for Claude Code, Codex or similar harness, and for projects using Golang.

user-invocable

true

license

MIT

metadata.author

samber

metadata.version

1.3.0

paths

**/*.go

// ✗ Bad — creates a new context, breaking the chain
func (s *OrderService) Create(ctx context.Context, order Order) error {
    return s.db.ExecContext(context.Background(), "INSERT INTO orders ...", order.ID)
}

// ✓ Good — propagates the caller's context
func (s *OrderService) Create(ctx context.Context, order Order) error {
    return s.db.ExecContext(ctx, "INSERT INTO orders ...", order.ID)
}

© context-labs, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 4 other files (references) in .agents/skills/golang-context of context-labs/whip.

• SKILL.md
• evals/evals.json
• references/cancellation.md
• references/http-services.md
• references/values-tracing.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8876467