https://arran4.github.io/blog/tags/test-helpers/Recent content in test-helpers on Arrans Technical blogHugo -- gohugo.ioentechnicalblog123@arran4.com (Arran Ubels)technicalblog123@arran4.com (Arran Ubels)Arran Ubels. This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:55:00 +1000https://arran4.github.io/blog/post/2026/049-go-test-setup-use-small-must-helpers/Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:55:00 +1000technicalblog123@arran4.com (Arran Ubels)https://arran4.github.io/blog/post/2026/049-go-test-setup-use-small-must-helpers/Production error handling should add useful context. Test setup is different. If a setup operation fails and the test can do nothing meaningful except stop, repeatedly writing this adds noise: 1n, err := f.Write(data) 2if err != nil { 3 t.Fatal(err) 4} 5_ = n The error is not being classified, wrapped, or asserted. The test is simply saying: this setup operation must succeed. For that case, I prefer a small must helper.