Getting Started #

In this article you will learn how to live reload go applications with one of the popular packages out there air. First we will learn how to setup up air and start using it right away, then we will see how to customize air with .air.toml file.

Installing air #

There are many ways to install air as seen in the installation section of air's documentation. The way I am going to use here is via go install (for go install to work you would have to have the $GOPATH/bin in your shell path).

go install github.com/cosmtrek/air@latest

Live reload go code #

In a new directory create a main.go file with the following content:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Air")
}
main.go

and run the following command to see live reloading in action:

air

You should see the following output:

watching .
!exclude tmp
building...
running...
Air

Now go ahead change the code and save the file:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Air Changed") // 👈 update message
}

Air will detect that the file is changed and you will see the new message:

watching .
!exclude tmp
building...
running...
Air Changed

Air creates a directory called tmp where it stores the built binary and executes it.

Configuring air with config file #

You can cutomize Air using a .air.toml file.

Run the following command in the project directory to generate a .air.toml file.

air init

This will generate a .air.toml file with the following output:

root = "."
testdata_dir = "testdata"
tmp_dir = "tmp"

[build]
  bin = "./tmp/main"
  cmd = "go build -o ./tmp/main ."
  delay = 1000
  exclude_dir = ["assets", "tmp", "vendor", "testdata"]
  exclude_file = []
  exclude_regex = ["_test.go"]
  exclude_unchanged = false
  follow_symlink = false
  full_bin = ""
  include_dir = []
  include_ext = ["go", "tpl", "tmpl", "html"]
  kill_delay = "0s"
  log = "build-errors.log"
  send_interrupt = false
  stop_on_error = true

[color]
  app = ""
  build = "yellow"
  main = "magenta"
  runner = "green"
  watcher = "cyan"

[log]
  time = false

[misc]
  clean_on_exit = false

[screen]
  clear_on_rebuild = false
.air.toml

Let's take an example, set clean_on_exit to true, this will delete the tmp (air stores the build binary file) folder when you exit air.

[misc]
  clean_on_exit = true

Run the air command by passing the config using -c option:

air -c .air.toml

To find the documentation of all the properties of .air.toml read the air_example.toml file.

Thank you for reading this article 🙏🏻 I hope it was helpful.