github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert

mkcert is primarily a command-line tool rather than a Go library, which is critical to understand. While it's distributed as a Go package, you're typically installing it as a binary (`go install` or releases) rather than importing it into your codebase. The actual Go API is minimal and not well-documented for library use - it's designed for CLI invocation.

For its intended purpose as a development tool, mkcert excels. Running `mkcert -install` sets up a local CA that your system trusts, and `mkcert example.com localhost` generates certificates instantly. Error messages are clear when something fails (permissions, existing CA, etc.), and the workflow is intuitive. The certificates work seamlessly across browsers and tools without the usual self-signed certificate warnings.

If you're looking to programmatically generate certificates in Go code, you'll need to either shell out to the mkcert binary or use lower-level packages like crypto/x509. The package structure isn't designed for library consumption with typical Go import patterns.

mkcert is fundamentally a command-line tool, not a Go package library. While the code is well-structured internally, it's designed to be installed as a binary (`go install` or via package managers) rather than imported into your projects. The DX focus here is on the CLI experience, which is excellent: running `mkcert example.com` generates certificates instantly with no configuration files needed.

The tool handles the complexity of creating a local CA and installing it in system trust stores across platforms. Error messages are clear when certificate installation fails due to permission issues, and it guides you toward using sudo when needed. However, there's no API documentation because this isn't meant to be used as a library—the README focuses entirely on CLI usage.

For developers needing programmatic certificate generation in Go applications, you'll need to examine the source code directly and extract the relevant crypto logic yourself. The codebase is readable but lacks exported APIs or examples for library usage. It excels at its intended purpose: making local HTTPS development trivial via a single command.

mkcert is fundamentally a CLI tool for local development certificate generation, not a production library. While the Go package is importable, it provides minimal public APIs and lacks the abstractions needed for programmatic use. The codebase is structured around main() execution with heavy reliance on global state and os.Exit calls that make it unsuitable for embedding in applications.

From an operations perspective, there are no resource management hooks, no context support for cancellation, and error handling is primitive - many functions panic or exit rather than returning errors you can handle gracefully. There's no logging interface you can plug into your observability stack; it prints directly to stdout/stderr. The certificate generation logic itself is sound, but you'd need to fork and refactor significant portions to use it as a library component.

Configuration is entirely CLI-flag driven with no programmatic options struct. If you need to generate certificates in your application, you're better off using crypto/x509 directly or finding a library actually designed for embedding. mkcert shines as a developer tool you run manually, not as a package dependency.