Go Gin Starter Kit

A starter kit for building a web API in Go using Gin, with Docker, configuration, dependency injection, JWT authentication, PostgreSQL support, and user authentication out of the box.

Features

• Gin web framework
• PostgreSQL integration (with migration example)
• Environment variable/config management
• JWT authentication (registration, login, protected routes)
• Docker support (build and run with ease)
• Example handler/service structure
• Clean architecture: separation of handlers, services, repositories
• Ready for production: .env config, error handling, extensible modules

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21+ (How to install Go)
• Docker
• PostgreSQL

---

Quickstart

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/asm2212/go-gin-starter.git
cd go-gin-starter

2. Configure Environment

Copy and edit the .env file:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env to match your local or Docker PostgreSQL settings and set a JWT_SECRET

Example:

APP_PORT=8080
APP_ENV=development
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASSWORD=postgres
DB_NAME=starterdb
JWT_SECRET=your_super_secret_key

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3. Set Up Database

Make sure PostgreSQL is running and a database named starterdb exists. To create with Docker:

docker run --name go-starter-postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -e POSTGRES_DB=starterdb -p 5432:5432 -d postgres

Run the migration SQL:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS users (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    username VARCHAR(64) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    password VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP NOT NULL
);

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4. Run the Server

Locally (with Go):

go mod tidy
go run ./cmd/main.go

With Docker:

docker build -t go-gin-starter .
docker run --env-file .env -p 8080:8080 go-gin-starter

Or use Docker Compose (recommended for public use, see below).

---

Public Usage (Recommended: Docker Compose)

Best for reproducible, containerized deployments.

1. Create a docker-compose.yml (or use the provided one if exists):

version: "3.8"
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:16
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
      POSTGRES_DB: starterdb
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  api:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    env_file:
      - .env
    depends_on:
      - db

volumes:
  db_data:

2. Launch both services:

docker-compose up --build

---

API Usage

Register

POST /register
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "username": "youruser",
  "password": "yourpass"
}

Login

POST /login
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "username": "youruser",
  "password": "yourpass"
}

Response: { "token": "<jwt>" }

Authenticated endpoint

GET /api/profile
Authorization: Bearer <jwt>

---

Expanding the Starter

• Add new models in internal/model/
• Add repositories in internal/db/
• Add business logic in internal/service/
• Add new endpoints in internal/api/
• Add middleware in internal/middleware/
• Update your database schema and migrations as needed

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Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Push to the branch
5. Open a Pull Request

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License

MIT

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Author

asm2212