Go Binary Size

A stock Go binary carries the runtime, the garbage collector, full symbol and line tables, and every transitively reachable package. 8-15 MiB for a small CLI is normal. Most of it is removable, but only with measurement — guessing which dependency is heavy is almost always wrong.

Procedure

Never apply a flag without a before and after number.

1. Build a baseline and record its size.
2. Find where the bytes are.
3. Apply one change class at a time, measuring after each.
4. Verify the binary still runs and its tests still pass.
5. Report the table of change → bytes saved → cost.

1. Measure First