Persona: You are a Go architect setting up dependency injection. You keep the container at the composition root, depend on interfaces not concrete types, and treat provider errors as first-class failures.

Using samber/do for Dependency Injection in Go

Type-safe dependency injection toolkit for Go based on Go 1.18+ generics.

Official Resources:

• pkg.go.dev/github.com/samber/do/v2
• do.samber.dev
• github.com/samber/do/v2

This skill is not exhaustive — refer to library documentation and code examples for more information:

• For Go package docs, symbols, versions, importers, and known vulnerabilities, → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-pkg-go-dev skill (godig), preferred over Context7 for Go package facts.
• To navigate this library's usage in your own code (definitions, call sites, diagnostics), → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-gopls skill (gopls).
• Context7 remains a fallback for docs not indexed on pkg.go.dev.

Install v2 — v1 is superseded and lacks the generics-based container, scopes, and lifecycle hooks documented below, so v1-era guidance misleads on every API in this skill:

go get -u github.com/samber/do/v2

Core Concepts

The Injector (Container)

import "github.com/samber/do/v2"

injector := do.New()

Service Types

• Lazy (default): Created when first requested
• Eager: Created immediately when the container starts
• Transient: New instance created on every request
• Value: Pre-created value, no instantiation

Provider Functions

Services MUST be registered via provider functions:

type Provider[T any] func(i Injector) (T, error)

Basic Usage

1. Define and Register Services

Follow "Accept Interfaces, Return Structs":

// Register a service (lazy by default)
do.Provide(injector, func(i do.Injector) (Database, error) {
    return &PostgreSQLDatabase{connString: "postgres://..."}, nil
})

// Register a pre-created value
do.ProvideValue(injector, &Config{Port: 8080})

// Register a transient service (new instance each time)
do.ProvideTransient(injector, func(i do.Injector) (*Logger, error) {
    return &Logger{}, nil
})

// Register an eager service (created immediately at startup)
do.ProvideValue(injector, &Config{Port: 8080})

2. Invoke Services

The container MUST only be accessed at the composition root:

// Invoke with error handling — reserve for call sites outside the DI graph
// (e.g. an HTTP handler that must degrade gracefully instead of crashing)
db, err := do.Invoke[Database](injector)

// MustInvoke panics on error — preferred in providers, recovered by do.Invoke on the parent call
db := do.MustInvoke[Database](injector)

Inside a provider function, always use do.MustInvoke (or MustInvokeAs/MustInvokeNamed/MustInvokeStruct) rather than the error-returning variant:

• A provider already returns (T, error), so propagating a dependency failure with do.Invoke costs an extra if err != nil { return nil, err } on every call.
• do.MustInvoke panics instead, but samber/do correctly catches and recovers that panic at the enclosing Invoke call and converts it back into a regular error — this recover happens inside the library itself, not in caller code, so MustInvoke is safe to use inside providers.
• The failure still surfaces as an error at the composition root, just without the manual boilerplate in every provider.

3. Service Dependencies

func NewUserService(i do.Injector) (UserService, error) {
    db := do.MustInvoke[Database](i)
    cache := do.MustInvoke[Cache](i)
    return &userService{db: db, cache: cache}, nil
}

do.Provide(injector, NewUserService)

4. Implicit Aliasing (Preferred)

Register a concrete type and invoke as an interface without explicit aliasing:

// Register concrete type
do.Provide(injector, func(i do.Injector) (*PostgreSQLDatabase, error) {
    return &PostgreSQLDatabase{}, nil
})

// Invoke directly as interface (implicit aliasing)
db := do.MustInvokeAs[Database](injector)

5. Named Services

Register multiple services of the same type:

do.ProvideNamed(injector, "primary-db", func(i do.Injector) (*Database, error) {
    return &Database{URL: "postgres://primary..."}, nil
})

mainDB := do.MustInvokeNamed[*Database](injector, "primary-db")

Package Organization

Use do.Package() to organize service registration by module:

// infrastructure/package.go
var Package = do.Package(
    do.Lazy(func(i do.Injector) (*postgres.DB, error) {
        cfg := do.MustInvoke[*Config](i)
        return postgres.Connect(cfg.DatabaseURL)
    }),
    do.Lazy(func(i do.Injector) (*redis.Client, error) {
        cfg := do.MustInvoke[*Config](i)
        return redis.NewClient(cfg.RedisURL), nil
    }),
)

// main.go
injector := do.New(infrastructure.Package, service.Package)

Full Application Setup

func main() {
    injector := do.New(
        infrastructure.Package,
        repository.Package,
        service.Package,
        transport.Package,
    )

    server := do.MustInvoke[*http.Server](injector)
    go server.ListenAndServe()

    _ = injector.ShutdownOnSignalsWithContext(context.Background(), os.Interrupt)
}

Best Practices

1. Depend on interfaces, not concrete types — lets you swap implementations in tests without touching production code
2. Each service should have one job — services with multiple responsibilities are harder to test and harder to replace
3. Keep dependency trees shallow — chains beyond 3-4 levels make initialization order fragile and errors harder to trace
4. Handle errors in provider functions — a silently failing provider creates a broken service that crashes later in unexpected places
5. Use scopes to organize services by lifecycle — request-scoped services prevent leaks, global services prevent redundant initialization
6. Use do.MustInvoke inside provider functions instead of do.Invoke — samber/do correctly catches and recovers the panic at the outer Invoke call, turning it back into a returned error, so it's safe to use inside providers and you get the same error propagation without the boilerplate

For scopes, lifecycle management, struct injection, and debugging, see [Advanced Usage](./references/advanced.md).

For testing patterns (cloning, overrides, mocks), see [Testing](./references/testing.md).

Quick Reference

Registration

Invocation

Cross-References

• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-dependency-injection skill for DI concepts, comparison, and when to adopt a DI library
• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-structs-interfaces skill for interface design patterns
• → See samber/cc-skills-golang@golang-testing skill for general testing patterns