gotests — Automatically Generate Go Table-Driven Tests

Introduction

gotests is a Go tool that automatically generates table-driven test stubs from your source functions and methods. Instead of writing repetitive test boilerplate by hand, gotests reads function signatures and produces correctly structured _test.go files with test tables ready for you to fill in test cases.

What gotests Does

• Generates table-driven test functions from any Go function or method signature
• Creates test files with proper package declarations and imports
• Supports generating tests for all functions in a file or for specific named functions
• Produces idiomatic Go test patterns following community conventions
• Integrates with editor plugins to generate tests with a single command

Architecture Overview

gotests parses Go source files using the go/parser and go/types packages to extract function signatures, parameter types, and return types. It then applies Go templates to generate test function bodies that include a test table struct, a loop iterating over cases, and assertions. The generated code is written through go/format to ensure it is properly formatted.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install with go install github.com/cweill/gotests/gotests@latest
• Run gotests -all -w . to generate tests for all functions and write them to _test.go files
• Use -only "FuncName" to generate tests for specific functions by regex
• Customize output templates by providing your own Go template files
• Supported in VS Code (Go extension), GoLand, Vim (vim-go), and Emacs

Key Features

• Table-driven test generation following Go best practices
• Custom templates for project-specific test patterns
• Works with methods, functions, and interface implementations
• Skips functions that already have tests to avoid overwriting
• Editor integration generates tests at cursor position

Comparison with Similar Tools

• go test — the test runner itself; gotests generates the test code that go test runs
• testify — assertion library; gotests generates the test structure, testify provides richer assertions
• gotestsum — enhanced test output; gotests focuses on code generation, not test execution
• GoMock — generates mock implementations; gotests generates test functions
• Copilot/AI — generates tests contextually; gotests produces consistent, template-based scaffolding

FAQ

Q: Does gotests overwrite existing tests? A: No, gotests detects existing test functions and skips them to avoid overwriting your test cases.

Q: Can I customize the generated test format? A: Yes, gotests supports custom Go templates that let you control the exact shape of generated tests.

Q: Does it work with methods on structs? A: Yes, gotests handles both standalone functions and methods with receivers, including pointer receivers.

Q: How do I generate tests for a single function? A: Use gotests -only "^MyFunc$" -w ./pkg/ to target a specific function by regex pattern.

Sources

• https://github.com/cweill/gotests
• https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/cweill/gotests