Full-Stack Go: Domain-Driven Applications with sqlc and templ

About the author: Ainsley Clark, Go Developer Advocate @ JetBrains

• https://ainsleyclark.com/
• https://github.com/ainsleyclark
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/ainsleyclark/
• https://x.com/ainsleydev/

Test Workshop

The workshop app: a site for animal sightings. Occurrence records come from GBIF, are stored in SQLite through sqlc, rendered server-side with templ, and enriched with Open-Meteo weather.

This repository is yours for the day. It's the finished app, we walk through it together, then you make the site your own in your fork and push it there.

Before you start

You need Go (the version in go.mod), Git, make and a GitHub account. For the Theming block you'll also want Claude Code and Python 3. GoLand is the preferred IDE for this workshop, and you should have had a voucher for it by email (see GoLand and your voucher).

	macOS	Linux	Windows
GoLand	the Toolbox App or https://www.jetbrains.com/go/download	the same	the same
Go	brew install go	sudo snap install go --classic	the .msi from https://go.dev/dl
Git	comes with make below	sudo apt install git	winget install Git.Git
make	xcode-select --install	sudo apt install make	winget install ezwinports.make
Claude Code	curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash	the same	irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
Python 3	brew install python	sudo apt install python3	winget install Python.Python.3.12

Prerequisites

• Go 1.27.1 or newer on the device you bring, with ~/go/bin on your PATH.
• A GitHub account.

GoLand and your voucher

The voucher gives you GoLand free for three months. You don't have to use GoLand, but the walkthrough and the demos are in it.

1. Create a JetBrains Account at https://account.jetbrains.com, if you haven't one already.
2. Redeem the code from your email at https://www.jetbrains.com/store/redeem/, signed in to that account.
3. Install GoLand and open it. When it asks for a licence, choose Log in to JetBrains Account and sign in with the same account, so it picks the licence up.

Plugins and agents

In GoLand, open Settings → Plugins → Marketplace and install:

• templ: highlighting and navigation for .templ files.
• Air: JetBrains' agent window.

Slack

Join the workshop's Slack channel; it's the quickest way to ask for help. There are a lot of you, so answer each other's questions too.

Where things are

main.go                     thin; hands off to internal/cmd
migrations/                 goose migrations
queries/                    sqlc queries, a file per table
internal/
├── cmd/                    CLI commands and the interactive menu
├── domain/                 the rules: sighting, species, weather — and their stores
├── clients/                outbound adapters: gbif, openmeteo
├── infra/                  config, sqlite, sqlc output
└── common/                 small generic helpers
web/                        your view layer: web.go owns the routes, handlers/, views/, assets/
architectures/              the opening tour, a ladder of five layouts; read, not typed in
.claude/, .junie/           Claude Code and Junie: settings and the /design-site skill for the Theming block

Each of internal/{domain,clients,infra,common} has a README saying where its line falls. SYLLABUS.md is the course outline you were sent beforehand.

Get set up

1. Fork this repository with the Fork button at the top of https://github.com/ainsleyclark/workshop-sqlc-templ-test. Your fork is where you push all day.

2. Clone your fork and open the folder in your IDE:

   git clone git@github.com:<your-github-user>/workshop-sqlc-templ-test.git
   cd workshop-sqlc-templ-test

   No SSH key? Use https://github.com/<your-github-user>/workshop-sqlc-templ-test.git instead.

3. Run setup once. It builds the tools from vendor/ without downloading anything, and installs the app as workshop in ~/go/bin. It takes a couple of minutes.

   make setup

4. Seed the database and start the site, then open http://localhost:8080:

   go run . db seed
   make web

During the day

make run        # the interactive CLI: migrate, seed, ingest sightings, list, stats, web
make run-live   # the same, against the real GBIF and Open-Meteo instead of the mock
make web        # serve the site on :8080
make web-hot    # the same, with templ hot reload
make templ      # regenerate templ after editing a .templ file
make sqlc       # regenerate sqlc after editing a query or migration
make test       # the tests
make key        # save the workshop's Claude key, for Claude Code in a terminal
make load       # load test the home page for 20 seconds, while make web runs
make load-pprof # the same, saving CPU and memory profiles
make update     # pull the instructor's latest changes
make push       # commit everything and push it to your fork
make help       # everything else

• More sightings: make run, then sightings → ingest. It reads from a mock of GBIF and Open-Meteo bundled with the app, so it works offline and never hits a rate limit. make run-live uses the real APIs.
• Database in a mess? git checkout workshop.db puts back the copy you last committed.
• Push to your fork as you go with make push, workshop.db included, so the instructor can see what you've built. /design-site does this for you after each of Claude's turns.

On Windows, run these from PowerShell or Git Bash. Every recipe in the Makefile is a plain go or git command, so if make won't cooperate, open tools/setup.mk and run the lines under tools: and setup: yourself. If vendor/ ever fails you, make tools-online installs the same tools at the same versions from the internet.

Theming your site

This part is yours; you design your own home page with an agent and the /design-site skill. Think about the animals you like, the countries you'd show them in, and the colours and look you want. Don't be afraid to add some flair, and use your imagination.

1. Add the workshop's Claude key, from Slack. In GoLand, press Ctrl twice to open Air, click the accounts button at the bottom right, choose More providers → Anthropic and paste the key. Not using GoLand? Run make key and paste it there instead: it saves the key in .claude/settings.local.json (never committed), then run claude in this folder.
2. Type /design-site and say what you'd like: a mood, some colours, a site you like. Paste in screenshots, they help. Try and paste in screenshots and give it lots of content.It asks a few questions, then builds the page with you.
3. Choose what's on the page. web/handlers/home.go decides which sightings the home page lists: the sighting.ListFilter there takes animals, a country, a date range and a limit.

Some ideas, if you want more than a restyle:

• A page per sighting (/sightings/{id}), animal or country.
• The weather on each sighting.
• A statistics page.
• The sightings on a map.
• A photo gallery.
• A custom 404 page.
• Some 3D effects.

Competitions

We're running two competitions as part of this workshop, with prizes for each winner. It's entirely your choice to take part.

• 1. Best Social Post: post on LinkedIn or X and tag @Ainsley Clark, @JetBrains and @GopherCon Africa. A picture of you, what you made, the conference or anything you enjoyed. If you tried Air, we'd love to hear what you thought of it: tag @getsome_air on X.
• 2. Best Website: the best design or function, built in your fork during the Theming block. It's judged on what's pushed to your fork by the end of the day, so make push before you leave, and check make web still builds: a site that doesn't build can't be judged.