GoForGo 🚀

Interactive Go tutorial CLI inspired by Rustlings 📚

GoForGo helps you learn Go by fixing broken code exercises with real-time feedback. It features 234 exercises covering Go fundamentals through advanced real-world topics including Kubernetes, big data, DevOps integration, third-party library ecosystem, and common Go pitfalls, all with a beautiful terminal interface. All exercises are embedded in the binary — just go install and start learning.

🎬 Demo

Experience GoForGo's elegant interface: animated splash screen, comprehensive welcome screen, real-time file watching, progressive hints, and smart progress tracking with uniform styling across all pages.

✨ Features

• 🎯 234 Interactive Exercises - From basics to advanced real-world Go development
• 👁️ Real-time File Watching - Automatic compilation and feedback as you code
• 🎨 Beautiful TUI - Clean terminal interface with progress tracking
• 📚 Progressive Learning - Structured curriculum with difficulty levels
• 💡 Smart Hints - Context-aware hints that adapt to your attempts
• 🧪 Advanced Testing - Universal validation system with container integration
• 🔧 Modern Go - Latest Go 1.24+ features and best practices
• 📦 Complete Ecosystem - Third-party libraries, Kubernetes, big data, DevOps tools
• ☸️ Kubernetes Mastery - client-go, CRDs, controllers, operators
• 🚀 Big Data & DevOps - Kafka, Hadoop, Spark, Elasticsearch integration

🚀 Quick Start

Option 1: Go Install (Recommended)

go install github.com/stonecharioteer/goforgo/cmd/goforgo@latest

# Initialize exercises in your learning directory
mkdir ~/learn-go && cd ~/learn-go
goforgo init

# Start learning!
goforgo

All 234 exercises and solutions are embedded in the binary — no repo clone needed.

Option 2: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/stonecharioteer/goforgo.git
cd goforgo
just build  # or: go build -o bin/goforgo ./cmd/goforgo

mkdir ~/learn-go && cd ~/learn-go
~/path/to/goforgo/bin/goforgo init

🎮 Usage

Initialize Your Learning Environment

goforgo init

This creates:

• exercises/ - 234 Go exercises organized by topic
• solutions/ - Complete reference solutions
• .goforgo.toml - Your progress and preferences

Start Interactive Mode (Default)

goforgo

This launches the interactive mode with:

• ⚡ Real-time file watching and compilation
• 📊 Progress tracking and visual feedback
• ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts for navigation
• 💡 Progressive hints and guidance

Run Specific Exercises

goforgo run hello              # Run the 'hello' exercise
goforgo run                    # Run next incomplete exercise
goforgo hint variables1        # Show hint for specific exercise
goforgo list                   # List all exercises with progress
goforgo list --all             # Show completed exercises too

Testing Helpers

goforgo solve 5                # Copy solution into exercise 5
goforgo solve 3-7              # Solve exercises 3 through 7 (inclusive)
goforgo sync                   # Re-validate all exercises, update progress
goforgo clean                  # Remove build artifacts from exercise dirs

solve copies the reference solution over the exercise file and marks it complete — useful for quickly advancing through exercises you've already understood. sync re-runs every exercise and updates progress to match reality (marks passing exercises complete, unmarks failing ones).

In the TUI list view, press r to run a sync and refresh the list in-place.

Available Commands

| Command | Description | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | | goforgo | Start interactive watch mode (default) | | goforgo init | Initialize exercises in current directory | | goforgo run [exercise] | Run specific exercise or next incomplete | | goforgo hint [exercise] | Show progressive hints | | goforgo list [--all] [--category=...] | List exercises with filters | | goforgo watch | Explicit watch mode with file monitoring | | goforgo solve <N or X-Y> | Copy solutions over exercises for a range | | goforgo sync | Re-validate all exercises and update progress | | goforgo clean | Remove build artifacts from exercise directories |

🏗️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24+ (required for latest language features)
• Just (recommended) - Install from casey/just
• Git for version information

Development Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/stonecharioteer/goforgo.git
cd goforgo

# Install development dependencies
just install-deps

# Build for development
just dev-build

# Run tests
just test

# Build optimized release binary
just build

Available Just Commands

just --list                    # Show all available commands

# Building
just build                     # Build optimized binary
just dev-build                 # Fast development build
just build-race                # Build with race detection
just build-release             # Cross-platform release binaries

# Testing & Quality
just test                      # Run all tests
just test-coverage             # Generate coverage report
just bench                     # Run benchmarks
just lint                      # Lint code with golangci-lint
just fmt                       # Format code

# Development
just dev-run                   # Build and test CLI in demo mode
just test-cli                  # Test CLI functionality
just watch                     # Auto-rebuild on changes (requires entr)
just pre-commit                # Full check before committing

# Maintenance
just clean                     # Clean build artifacts
just tidy                      # Tidy Go modules
just info                      # Show project information

Manual Build (without Just)

# Basic build
mkdir -p bin
go build -o bin/goforgo ./cmd/goforgo

# With version information
go build -ldflags="-X 'github.com/stonecharioteer/goforgo/internal/cli.version=v1.0.0'" -o bin/goforgo ./cmd/goforgo

# Cross-platform builds
GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o dist/goforgo-linux-amd64 ./cmd/goforgo
GOOS=darwin GOARCH=amd64 go build -o dist/goforgo-darwin-amd64 ./cmd/goforgo
GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build -o dist/goforgo-windows-amd64.exe ./cmd/goforgo

📚 Exercise Categories

GoForGo includes 234 exercises across 57 categories:

Core Go Fundamentals (76 exercises)

• 01_basics - Hello world, syntax, comments, program structure (10 exercises)
• 02_variables - Types, declarations, zero values, constants (9 exercises)
• 03_functions - Parameters, returns, methods, closures (12 exercises)
• 04_control_flow - if/else, loops, switch, defer, panic/recover (10 exercises)
• 05_arrays - Fixed-size collections, iteration, sorting (5 exercises)
• 06_slices - Dynamic arrays, capacity, tricks (6 exercises)
• 07_maps - Key-value structures, patterns, performance (5 exercises)
• 08_structs - Custom types, embedding, methods (4 exercises)
• 09_interfaces - Type satisfaction, composition, assertions (4 exercises)
• 10_errors - Error handling patterns, wrapping, custom errors (3 exercises)
• 11_concurrency - Goroutines, channels, context patterns (5 exercises)
• 12_generics - Type parameters, constraints, inference (3 exercises)

Advanced Go Features (68 exercises)

• 13_testing - Units, benchmarks, test doubles, fuzzing (5 exercises)
• 14_stdlib - Standard library utilities, time, strings, regex (3 exercises)
• 15_json - Encoding, decoding, streaming, validation (3 exercises)
• 16_http - Servers, clients, middleware patterns (3 exercises)
• 17_files - I/O operations, permissions, file watching (3 exercises)
• 18_regex - Pattern matching, parsing, advanced expressions (3 exercises)
• 19_reflection - Type inspection, dynamic calls, practical applications (3 exercises)
• 20_advanced - Design patterns, context patterns, pipeline patterns (3 exercises)
• 21_crypto - Hashing, encryption, digital signatures (3 exercises)
• 22_net - TCP/UDP servers, HTTP clients, networking (5 exercises)
• 23_encoding - Base64, JSON processing, data encoding (3 exercises)
• 24_io - Buffered I/O, interfaces, streaming patterns (3 exercises)
• 25_paths - File paths, directory operations (3 exercises)
• 26_os - Environment, process management, signals (3 exercises)
• 27_math - Geometry, statistics, number theory (3 exercises)
• 28_sorting - Search algorithms, sorting comparison (3 exercises)
• 29_data_structures - Linked lists, stacks, queues, trees (3 exercises)
• 30_algorithms - Dynamic programming, graph algorithms, pattern matching (3 exercises)
• 31_web - Web servers, middleware patterns, WebSocket (3 exercises)

Real-World Patterns (9 exercises)

• 32_microservices - Service discovery, circuit breakers, distributed tracing (3 exercises)
• 33_databases - SQL operations, connection pooling, NoSQL (3 exercises)