api_tmpl

A Go backend service template with a working authentication flow (register, login, email verification, refresh tokens), built to be cloned and renamed for new projects rather than run as-is.

Included out of the box:

• Gin-based HTTP API (internal/handlers/http) with an equivalent gRPC + grpc-gateway API (internal/handlers/grpc, currently wired up but disabled in main.go — see below)
• PostgreSQL persistence via sqlc-generated queries (internal/db/sqlc)
• Redis + Asynq background task queue, with an example "send verification email" task
• PASETO/JWT auth token issuance and middleware, with role-based access control
• Migrations via golang-migrate
• Swagger/OpenAPI docs, served both via swaggo (Gin) and grpc-gateway's generated spec
• Bruno API collection for manual testing (Bruno/)

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Using this as a template

1. Rename the module: replace github.com/FernandoJVideira/api_tmpl with your own module path throughout the repo, and update module in go.mod.
2. Copy the env templates and fill in real values:

   cp api.env.example api.env
   cp api_test.env.example api_test.env
   

   At minimum, set a real AUTH_TOKEN_SECRET (32+ random characters) and, if you plan to use the email-verification worker task, real SMTP credentials. Neither api.env nor api_test.env is tracked in git (see .gitignore) — don't commit real secrets into their place.
3. If you rename the module or the gRPC service, regenerate the protobuf/gateway/swagger code:

   make proto
   make mock
   

   This requires protoc, protoc-gen-go, protoc-gen-go-grpc, protoc-gen-grpc-gateway, protoc-gen-openapiv2, and statik on your PATH (brew install protobuf, then go install the rest — see Makefile proto target for the exact plugins).
4. Update PROJ_NAME / SERVICE_NAME in api.env and api_test.env, and the Swagger metadata in cmd/api/main.go (@title, @description, @contact.email) and proto/service_api_tmpl.proto.

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Prerequisites

• Go 1.25+
• PostgreSQL, Redis (or use docker-compose.yml for local instances)
• sqlc, golang-migrate, air (hot reload) — all optional but expected by the Makefile
• protoc + Go plugins (only needed if you touch proto/*.proto — see above)

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Quickstart (development)

1. Copy env files and fill in secrets (see Using this as a template).
2. Start local Postgres + Redis:

   make up
   

3. Run DB migrations:

   make migrate-up
   

4. Run the server with hot reload:

   make server
   

   Or without air:

   go run ./cmd/api
   

5. Verify:
   • HTTP API: http://localhost:8080/api/v1/... (see routes in internal/handlers/http/server.go)
   • Swagger UI: http://localhost:8080/swagger/index.html
   • Redis Commander (from docker-compose.yml): http://localhost:8081

By default main.go only starts the Gin HTTP server and the Asynq task processor — the gRPC server and grpc-gateway (runGrpcServer / runGatewayServer in cmd/api/main.go) are implemented but commented out. Uncomment them if you want the gRPC/gateway path running alongside the Gin server.

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Background worker (Asynq)

• Tasks are enqueued by the app and processed by an Asynq server embedded in the same binary.
• internal/worker/distributer.go — enqueues tasks (TaskDistributor).
• internal/worker/processor.go — consumes tasks, registers handlers, configures queue weights.
• internal/worker/task_send_verify_email.go — example task: sends a verification email after user registration.
• internal/worker/logger.go adapts Asynq's logger to zerolog; edit it to change log formatting.

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Environment variables

See api.env.example for the full list with defaults. Notable ones:

• Server: HTTP_SERVER_ADDR, GRPC_SERVER_ADDR, ENVIRONMENT, ALLOWED_ORIGINS
• Database: DB_ADDR, MIGRATIONS_URL
• Redis: REDIS_ADDR, REDIS_PASSWORD, REDIS_DB
• Auth: AUTH_TOKEN_SECRET, AUTH_TOKEN_MIN_KEY_SIZE, AUTH_TOKEN_EXP, REFRESH_TOKEN_EXP, AUTH_TOKEN_ISS, AUTH_TOKEN_AUD
• Email: EMAIL_FROM, EMAIL_FROM_NAME, EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD
• Rate limiter: RATE_LIMITER_REQS_COUNT, RATE_LIMITER_TIME_FRAME, RATE_LIMITER_ENABLED

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Testing

make test          # go test -v -cover -short ./...

internal/db/sqlc tests hit a real Postgres instance (make up && make migrate-up first). Everything else runs against mocks generated with mockgen (make mock).

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Project layout

• cmd/api/main.go — application entrypoint (wires config, DB, Redis, servers)
• cmd/db/migrations, cmd/db/query — SQL migrations and queries consumed by sqlc
• internal/handlers/http — Gin HTTP handlers, routes, middleware
• internal/handlers/grpc — gRPC server + grpc-gateway wiring
• internal/service — business logic shared by both HTTP and gRPC handlers
• internal/db/sqlc — generated DB access layer (Store interface + queries)
• internal/auth — PASETO/JWT token makers
• internal/security — password hashing
• internal/worker — Asynq task distributor/processor
• internal/mailer — email sending
• internal/config — env-based configuration (viper)
• internal/val — request validators
• internal/domain/role — role constants for RBAC
• pb/ — generated protobuf/gRPC/gateway code (regenerate via make proto)
• docs/ — Swagger/OpenAPI specs and the statik-embedded swagger UI
• Bruno/ — Bruno collection for manually exercising the API

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Makefile targets

Run make <target>:

Target	Description
test	Run unit/integration tests
mock	Regenerate mocks (Store, TaskDistributor, services)
up / down / reload	Manage local Docker Compose infra (Postgres, Redis)
server	Run with hot reload (air)
migration <name>	Create a new migration file
migrate-up / migrate-down	Apply/rollback migrations
sqlc	Regenerate internal/db/sqlc from SQL queries
proto	Regenerate pb/, docs/swagger, docs/statik from proto/*.proto
dbdocs / dbschema	Generate DB docs / SQL schema from docs/db.dbml
lint	Run golangci-lint

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Contributing

• Keep changes small and focused; add/update unit tests where appropriate.