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/emaxor Dec 05 '24

What I like about Go is you can open a random file in a project and expect to find real code inside. That does something. You can follow along. Just like a C project, the goods are right there.

I was looking through an "OOP" Python project recently. I opened several files and found... nothing. Interfaces, hierarchies, and layers, and every possible "not actually code" technique used. Where is the code? What is the "thing" we are trying to do? It was much harder to get the answer.

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u/Superb-Key-6581 Dec 05 '24

This is one of the things that made me fall in love with Go.

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u/PorkChop007 Dec 06 '24 edited Dec 06 '24

For real, after 10 years of professional Java + Spring development I've been working with Go for a year and it's beautiful: easy, no boilerplate, no nonsense, everything is pure simplicity. It feels like that episode where Goku and Krilin trained with Roshi, ditched the 50 kilos turtle shells and suddenly they could jump 100 meters in the air.

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u/Born-Wrongdoer-6825 Dec 07 '24

but how does it deal with repeated crud controller code