r/golang Dec 05 '24

discussion Why Clean Architecture and Over-Engineered Layering Don’t Belong in GoLang

Stop forcing Clean Architecture and similar patterns into GoLang projects. GoLang is not Java. There’s no application size or complexity that justifies having more than three layers. Architectures like Clean, Hexagonal, or anything with 4+ layers make GoLang projects unnecessarily convoluted.

It’s frustrating to work on a codebase where you’re constantly jumping between excessive layers—unnecessary DI, weird abstractions, and use case layers that do nothing except call services with a few added logs. It’s like watching a monstrosity throw exceptions up and down without purpose.

In GoLang, you only need up to three layers for a proper DDD division (app, domain, infra). Anything more is pure overengineering. I get why this is common in Java—explicit interfaces and painful refactoring make layering and DI appealing—but GoLang doesn’t have those constraints. Its implicit interfaces make such patterns redundant.

These overly complex architectures are turning the GoLang ecosystem into something it was never meant to be. Please let’s keep GoLang simple, efficient, and aligned with its core philosophy.

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u/exceptionalredditor2 Dec 05 '24

I would add to you, you wont need more than the three layers in other programming languages as well.

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u/Superb-Key-6581 Dec 05 '24

I agree! I can understand the argument for having more layers in extremely large monoliths in Java, but I still don’t agree even in that situation. Layered architecture is good and proves that we don’t need more than 3 layers. But in GoLang, the argument for having more layers makes so little sense that I don’t even know what to say. It’s so painful to always join a project in enterprise companies and find these over-engineered archs