DBOS Go Best Practices

Guide for building reliable, fault-tolerant Go applications with DBOS durable workflows.

When to Use

Reference these guidelines when:

• Adding DBOS to existing Go code
• Creating workflows and steps
• Using queues for concurrency control
• Implementing workflow communication (events, messages, streams)
• Configuring and launching DBOS applications
• Using the DBOS Client from external applications
• Testing DBOS applications

Reliability and version boundaries

Pin and verify the DBOS Go SDK version before adapting these illustrative fragments; the current SDK documentation uses dbos.Context while this snapshot uses dbos.DBOSContext. Helpers, imports, registrations and application-specific functions are omitted. Do not claim snippets compile as a complete app. Check every returned error before using a handle or result. Workflow IDs and checkpointed steps do not make external payment/API side effects exactly-once: a crash after the remote action but before checkpointing can replay it. Use provider idempotency keys and reconciliation. Authenticate and deduplicate webhook messages before Send; scope workflow access to the caller. Queue limits govern workflow starts, not every request/retry inside a workflow. Cancellation cannot undo committed effects. Keep workflow inputs, outputs and error payloads free of secrets/unnecessary personal data. Do not enable admin endpoints, schedules, paid calls or management mutations without authorization.

Rule Categories by Priority