goatstack

goatstack

A project scaffolding tool for creating Go + templ + htmx web applications, similar to Create React App or Vite.

goatstack creates a full-stack web application in pure Go. A single command generates all the required boilerplate to have a deployable project. You can then start working right away in your application's business logic, on your views or HTTP handlers.

The generated Go backend uses exclusively the Go standard library, HTML templating is implemented with templ and htmx is vendored into the application.

Prerequisites

The following dependencies are either required or would facilitate working with the projects generated by goatstack:

• Go v1.26.0+: Required for building goatstack and the generated projects
• Docker: A postgres Docker compose service for local development is created on the generated project.
• just: Command runner
• direnv: Environment configurator

Installation

just install

This builds the goatstack binary and copies it to ~/bin.

~/bin should be in your PATH for goatstack to be accessible from your shell.

Usage

goatstack create --app <name> --module <module> --daemon <daemon> [--db <type>]

Flags

Example

goatstack create --app myproject --module codeberg.org/myproject --daemon myprojectd

After creation, run just dev in a directory within the generated project to start developing.

Generated Project Structure

The generated Go web application has the following structure:

myproject/
├── backend/
│   ├── cmd/
│   │   └── myproject/          # Main application
│   ├── internal/
│   │   ├── daemonize/          # Goroutine (daemon) management
│   │   ├── emaild/             # Email daemon
│   │   ├── server/             # HTTP server
│   │   ├── state/              # Database queries
│   │   ├── static/             # Static assets (CSS, JS)
│   │   ├── views/              # Templ components/views
│   │   └── web/                # Web/HTTP utility functions
│   ├── go.mod                  # Go module file
│   └── .air.toml               # air live reload configuration
├── freebsd/
│   ├── INSTALL.sh              # FreeBSD installation script
│   └── myprojectd              # FreeBSD rc script
├── justfile
├── .envrc                      # Environment variables setup
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

Backend

The HTTP server, handlers and middlewares are implemented using primarily the Go standard library. It implements middleware functions to handle logging, security headers, authentication, session management and more.

goatstack can setup your project to work with either SQLite or PostgreSQL.

The package daemonize implements functions to make managing goroutines easier.

emaild provides a daemon to periodically send emails through SMTP.

Developing goatstack

Use the following just targets for working on goatstack:

Limitations

• The project currently only provides rc scripts and shell scripts to deploy to FreeBSD.
• The provided authentication middleware requires further customization by the user.