github.com/grpc/grpc-go

The official Go gRPC implementation is robust and production-ready, but getting started requires understanding both gRPC concepts and Go-specific patterns. The initial setup involves protobuf compilation, code generation with protoc-gen-go-grpc, and understanding the distinction between client/server interceptors. The examples in the repository are comprehensive once you find them, covering streaming, authentication, and error handling, though they could be better organized for newcomers.

Error messages are generally helpful, especially around connection issues and context deadlines. When things go wrong with interceptors or metadata handling, debugging can be tricky since errors may surface deep in the call stack. The grpc.Dial and grpc.NewServer APIs have evolved, and you'll encounter deprecation warnings that push you toward newer patterns like grpc.NewClient.

Day-to-day usage is smooth once you're past the initial setup. The streaming APIs work well, and features like health checking, reflection, and load balancing are built-in. Community support is strong—Stack Overflow has good coverage, and GitHub issues get attention, though response times vary. The official documentation has improved but still assumes significant prior gRPC knowledge.

Using grpc-go in production is generally solid. The runtime performance is excellent with proper connection pooling through ClientConn - keep these long-lived and reuse them. Resource management works well with context-based cancellation, though you need to be disciplined about timeouts since the default is no timeout, which has bitten us more than once. The built-in interceptors for logging and metrics are powerful once you understand the chain ordering.

Error handling requires wrapping your head around status.Error vs regular errors, and extracting structured error details takes boilerplate. The retry configuration moved to service config JSON in v1.40+, which was initially confusing but provides more runtime flexibility. Connection state management is observable through GetState(), though you'll want custom health checks for production.

Breaking changes between versions have been manageable but require attention - the move from grpc.Dial to grpc.NewClient in recent versions needed careful migration. Under load, the library handles backpressure well with proper flow control, but you must tune keepalive parameters and max connection age to avoid accumulating zombie connections in cloud environments.

Running grpc-go in production requires careful attention to defaults. Connection pooling works well once configured, but you'll need to explicitly set keepalive parameters, max connection age, and idle timeouts—the defaults aren't always production-appropriate. The built-in interceptor pattern makes adding observability clean, and integration with OpenTelemetry/Prometheus is straightforward. Memory usage is reasonable under load, though streaming RPCs need careful buffer management.

Error handling is sophisticated but verbose. The status package provides rich error metadata, but translating between gRPC codes and application errors requires boilerplate. Retry behavior isn't automatic—you'll implement it via interceptors or use the experimental retry policies. Connection state management is solid with proper backoff, but debugging connection issues requires understanding the internal state machine.

Breaking changes between minor versions have burned me, especially around resolver/balancer APIs and deprecated options. Always read release notes carefully. The timeout propagation via context works well, but you must be disciplined about setting deadlines—servers without timeouts can leak goroutines under pathological client behavior.