go-bloat

Know the cost before you go get

A CLI tool that analyzes Go module dependencies and shows their impact before installation.

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🎯 The Problem

When you run go get github.com/gin-gonic/gin, you don't know:

• How big is gin itself?
• What dependencies does it pull in?
• Total download size?

go-bloat answers these questions before you install.

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✨ Features

Status	Feature
✅	Fetch latest version from Go proxy
✅	List all transitive dependencies
✅	CI/CD with GitHub Actions
✅	Cross-platform builds (Linux, macOS, Windows)
🚧	Size calculation per dependency
🚧	Compare alternative packages
🚧	Suggest lighter alternatives

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📦 Installation

Option 1: Run directly

go run github.com/apollo87z/go-bloat/cmd@latest analyze <module>

Option 2: Install locally

go install github.com/apollo87z/go-bloat/cmd@latest
go-bloat analyze <module>

Option 3: Download binary

Download pre-built binaries from Releases

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🚀 Quick Start

# Analyze a module
go run cmd/main.go analyze github.com/gin-gonic/gin

Output:

🔍 go-bloat - Know the cost before you go get

📦 Analyzing: github.com/gin-gonic/gin

Fetching: https://proxy.golang.org/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/@latest
Found version: v1.9.1
Fetching dependencies from: https://proxy.golang.org/github.com/gin-gonic/gin/@v/v1.9.1.mod
Found 10 dependencies

Latest version: v1.9.1

Dependencies (10):
  1. github.com/bytedance/sonic
  2. github.com/gabriel-vasile/mimetype
  3. github.com/gin-contrib/sse
  4. github.com/go-playground/validator/v10
  5. github.com/goccy/go-json
  6. github.com/json-iterator/go
  7. github.com/mattn/go-isatty
  8. github.com/pelletier/go-toml/v2
  9. github.com/ugorji/go/codec
  10. google.golang.org/protobuf

✅ Analysis complete!

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📚 Use Cases

Compare Web Frameworks

go-bloat analyze github.com/gin-gonic/gin
go-bloat analyze github.com/gorilla/mux
go-bloat analyze github.com/labstack/echo/v4

Check Dependency Count

See how many transitive dependencies a package pulls in before adding it to your project.

Audit Dependencies

Discover what your dependencies depend on - useful for security audits and license compliance.

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🔧 Development

Project Structure

go-bloat/
├── cmd/
│   ├── main.go           # CLI entry point
│   └── main_test.go      # Tests
├── pkg/
│   └── registry/
│       ├── types.go      # Data structures
│       └── proxy.go      # Go proxy client
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── test.yml      # Test pipeline
│       └── build.yml     # Build pipeline
├── go.mod
└── README.md

Running Locally

git clone https://github.com/apollo87z/go-bloat.git
cd go-bloat
go run cmd/main.go analyze <module>

Running Tests

go test ./...

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🛣️ Roadmap

• Calculate actual download size per dependency
• Show dependency tree visualization
• Compare multiple packages side-by-side
• Suggest lighter alternatives
• Cache results for faster lookups
• REST API endpoint
• Support for private modules

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Open an issue or submit a PR.

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📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

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🔗 Related Projects

• SAT Dependency Resolver - Universal dependency resolver using SAT solvers (Python)

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Built by Shehan Horadagoda

⭐ Star this repo if you find it useful!