Go Backend Clean Architecture

A Go (Golang) Backend Clean Architecture project with Gin, MongoDB, JWT Authentication Middleware, Test, and Docker.

You can use this project as a template to build your Backend project in the Go language on top of this project.

Before creating this project, I have gone through more than 20 projects related to the Go(Golang) Clean Architecture on GitHub.

Thanks to all those projects, I learned a lot from all of those. As I keep saying:

The best way to learn to code is to code. But, to write good code, you will also have to read good code. Make a habit of reading good code. You can find many open-source projects on GitHub and start reading.

Then for the implementation part, I combined all of my ideas, experiences, and learnings from those projects to create this project.

And as always I would love to get feedback on my project. This helps everyone and most importantly me.

Learn about this project architecture in detail from the blogs mentioned below:

• Go Backend Clean Architecture
• Go JWT Authentication Middleware
• Configuration with Viper in Go
• Test with Testify and Mockery in Go
• Database Normalization vs Denormalization

Architecture Layers of the project

• Router
• Controller
• Usecase
• Repository
• Domain

About me

Hi, I am Amit Shekhar, Founder @ Outcome School • IIT 2010-14 • I have taught and mentored many developers, and their efforts landed them high-paying tech jobs, helped many tech companies in solving their unique problems, and created many open-source libraries being used by top companies. I am passionate about sharing knowledge through open-source, blogs, and videos.

Follow Amit Shekhar

• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• GitHub

Follow Outcome School

• YouTube
• X/Twitter
• LinkedIn
• GitHub

I teach at Outcome School

• AI and Machine Learning
• Android

Join Outcome School and get a high-paying tech job: Outcome School

System Design Playlist on YouTube

We have launched our YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Outcome School YouTube Channel

• What is System Design?
• Twitter Timeline Design with Fanout Approach - System Design
• HTTP Request vs HTTP Long-Polling vs WebSocket vs Server-Sent Events
• YouTube Video Upload Service - System Design
• What is Consistent Hashing?
• Capacity Estimation: Back-of-the-envelope calculation - Twitter

Prepare for Machine Learning Interview: Machine Learning Interview Questions

Major Packages used in this project

• gin: Gin is an HTTP web framework written in Go (Golang). It features a Martini-like API with much better performance -- up to 40 times faster. If you need a smashing performance, get yourself some Gin.
• mongo go driver: The Official Golang driver for MongoDB.
• jwt: JSON Web Tokens are an open, industry-standard RFC 7519 method for representing claims securely between two parties. Used for Access Token and Refresh Token.
• viper: For loading configuration from the .env file. Go configuration with fangs. Find, load, and unmarshal a configuration file in JSON, TOML, YAML, HCL, INI, envfile, or Java properties formats.
• bcrypt: Package bcrypt implements Provos and Mazières's bcrypt adaptive hashing algorithm.
• testify: A toolkit with common assertions and mocks that plays nicely with the standard library.
• mockery: A mock code autogenerator for Golang used in testing.
• Check more packages in go.mod.

Public API Request Flow without JWT Authentication Middleware

Private API Request Flow with JWT Authentication Middleware

JWT Authentication Middleware for Access Token Validation.

How to run this project?

We can run this Go Backend Clean Architecture project with or without Docker. Here, I am providing both ways to run this project.

• Clone this project

# Move to your workspace
cd your-workspace

# Clone this project into your workspace
git clone https://github.com/amitshekhariitbhu/go-backend-clean-architecture.git

# Move to the project root directory
cd go-backend-clean-architecture

Run without Docker

• Create a file .env similar to .env.example at the root directory with your configuration.
• Install go if not installed on your machine.
• Install MongoDB if not installed on your machine.
• Important: Change the DB_HOST to localhost (DB_HOST=localhost) in .env configuration file. DB_HOST=mongodb is needed only when you run with Docker.
• Run go run cmd/main.go.
• Access API using http://localhost:8080

Run with Docker

• Create a file .env similar to .env.example at the root directory with your configuration.
• Install Docker and Docker Compose.
• Run docker-compose up -d.
• Access API using http://localhost:8080

How to run the test?

# Run all tests
go test ./...

How to generate the mock code?

In this project, to test, we need to generate mock code for the use-case, repository, and database.

# Generate mock code for the usecase and repository
mockery --dir=domain --output=domain/mocks --outpkg=mocks --all

# Generate mock code for the database
mockery --dir=mongo --output=mongo/mocks --outpkg=mocks --all

Whenever you make changes in the interfaces of these use-cases, repositories, or databases, you need to run the corresponding command to regenerate the mock code for testing.

The Complete Project Folder Structure

.
├── Dockerfile
├── api
│   ├── controller
│   │   ├── login_controller.go
│   │   ├── profile_controller.go
│   │   ├── profile_controller_test.go
│   │   ├── refresh_token_controller.go
│   │   ├── signup_controller.go
│   │   └── task_controller.go
│   ├── middleware
│   │   └── jwt_auth_middleware.go
│   └── route
│       ├── login_route.go
│       ├── profile_route.go
│       ├── refresh_token_route.go
│       ├── route.go
│       ├── signup_route.go
│       └── task_route.go
├── bootstrap
│   ├── app.go
│   ├── database.go
│   └── env.go
├── cmd
│   └── main.go
├── docker-compose.yaml
├── domain
│   ├── error_response.go
│   ├── jwt_custom.go
│   ├── login.go
│   ├── profile.go
│   ├── refresh_token.go
│   ├── signup.go
│   ├── success_response.go
│   ├── task.go
│   └── user.go
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── internal
│   └── tokenutil
│       └── tokenutil.go
├── mongo
│   └── mongo.go
├── repository
│   ├── task_repository.go
│   ├── user_repository.go
│   └── user_repository_test.go
└── usecase
    ├── login_usecase.go
    ├── profile_usecase.go
    ├── refresh_token_usecase.go
    ├── signup_usecase.go
    ├── task_usecase.go
    └── task_usecase_test.go

API documentation of Go Backend Clean Architecture

Example API Request and Response

• signup

  • Request

  curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:8080/signup' \
  --data-urlencode 'email=test@gmail.com' \
  --data-urlencode 'password=test' \
  --data-urlencode 'name=Test Name'

  • Response

  {
    "accessToken": "access_token",
    "refreshToken": "refresh_token"
  }

• login

  • Request

  curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:8080/login' \
  --data-urlencode 'email=test@gmail.com' \
  --data-urlencode 'password=test'

  • Response

  {
    "accessToken": "access_token",
    "refreshToken": "refresh_token"
  }

• profile

  • Request

  curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:8080/profile' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer access_token'

  • Response

  {
    "name": "Test Name",
    "email": "test@gmail.com"
  }

• task create

  • Request

  curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:8080/task' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer access_token' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data-urlencode 'title=Test Task'

  • Response

  {
    "message": "Task created successfully"
  }

• task fetch

  • Request

  curl --location --request GET 'http://localhost:8080/task' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer access_token'

  • Response

  [
    {
      "title": "Test Task"
    },
    {
      "title": "Test Another Task"
    }
  ]

• refresh token

  • Request

  curl --location --request POST 'http://localhost:8080/refresh' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
  --data-urlencode 'refreshToken=refresh_token'

  • Response

  {
    "accessToken": "access_token",
    "refreshToken": "refresh_token"
  }

TODO

• Improvement based on feedback.
• Add more test cases.
• Always try to update with the latest version of the packages used.

If this project helps you in anyway, show your love ❤️ by putting a ⭐ on this project ✌️

License

   Copyright (C) 2025 Amit Shekhar

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

Contributing to Go Backend Clean Architecture

All pull requests are welcome.