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Short answer

Start a goroutine with go f(); it runs concurrently in the same address space. Pass data between goroutines over channels rather than sharing variables. [S1]

Pattern

A pipeline is stages joined by channels: each stage receives, works, sends. The sender closes its output channel when done so receivers can stop. [S2]

Watch for

• Goroutines blocked on a channel nobody reads leak; give stages a way to cancel (a done channel or context). [S2]
• Effective Go is older and predates generics and modules. [S1]

Claims

• id: C1 claim: Share memory by communicating. source: S1 evidence: "Do not communicate by sharing memory; instead, share memory by communicating."
• id: C2 claim: A goroutine runs concurrently in the same address space. source: S1 evidence: "it is a function executing concurrently with other goroutines in the same address space"
• id: C3 claim: Effective Go is not actively updated. source: S1 evidence: "is not actively updated"
• id: C4 claim: Go primitives make streaming pipelines easy. source: S2 evidence: "Go's concurrency primitives make it easy to construct streaming data pipelines"

Sources

• [S1] Effective Go - The Go Programming Language. The Go Authors (go.dev). https://go.dev/doc/effective_go . License: CC BY 4.0 (go.dev text). Accessed 2026-11-04.
• [S2] Go Concurrency Patterns: Pipelines and cancellation - The Go Programming Language. The Go Authors (go.dev). https://go.dev/blog/pipelines . License: CC BY 4.0 (go.dev text). Accessed 2026-11-04.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

@misc{iil_note_2x033rny,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{Go goroutines and channels in brief}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/go-goroutines-channels/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:2x033rny. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

Markdown

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