Golang Context

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Development work in your project

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

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

1. 1Propagate the same context through the entire request lifecycle: HTTP handler → service → DB → external APIs — any link that starts a…
2. 2Take ctx as the first parameter, named ctx context.Context — the fixed position is what makes context-aware APIs recognizable at a glance…
3. 3Pass context through function parameters instead of storing it in a struct — the struct outlives the request that filled it, so later…
4. 4Pass context.TODO() rather than a nil context — nil panics on the first Done() or Value() call, far from the caller that passed it.
5. 5Call cancel() on all control-flow paths for WithCancel/WithTimeout/WithDeadline, unless ownership of the context and cancel function is…
6. 6Create context.Background() only at top-level entry points (main, init, tests). Deeper in the call chain — especially mid-request — it…
7. 7Use context.TODO() as a placeholder when a context is needed but none exists yet — it marks the gap for a later fix instead of hiding it…
8. 8Declare context value keys as unexported types — with a plain string key, two packages using "user" silently overwrite each other.
9. 9Carry only request-scoped metadata in context values, never function parameters — values retrieved through Value() lose compile-time…
10. 10Use context.WithoutCancel (Go 1.21+) when spawning background work that must outlive the parent request — otherwise the handler returning…

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 772edc7. 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 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 114 tokens; SKILL.md has 610 words of instructions outside code blocks.

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

~114

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

~1.6k

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

~4.8k

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 unxed/f4 at commit 772edc7, republished under its MIT licence (© unxed). 610 words, ~1,571 tokens.

name

golang-context

description

Idiomatic context.Context usage in Golang — propagation through API boundaries, cancellation, timeouts and deadlines, request-scoped values, context.WithoutCancel for background work outliving requests. Apply when designing context propagation across layers, debugging leaked or unexpired contexts, choosing between context.Background/TODO/WithoutCancel, or storing values in context. Not for code that merely accepts ctx as first parameter.

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

1.3.1

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)
}

© unxed, 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 unxed/f4.

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

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 772edc7

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in unxed/f4, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• samber/cc-skills-golangskills/golang-context