Golang PocketBase Setup Notes

Prerequisites

• Go installed (version 1.21+ recommended), see Golang Setup on Linux

• Git installed

• Code editor (VS Code recommended)

• Terminal / CLI

Project Setup

Create a new Go project and initialize the module:

mkdir my-pocketbase-app
cd my-pocketbase-app
go mod init github.com/yourusername/my-pocketbase-app

Install PocketBase

Use Go modules to install PocketBase and dependencies:

go get github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase
go get github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/plugins/migratecmd
go get github.com/joho/godotenv

Folder Structure

Organize your project like this:

my-pocketbase-app/
├── main.go
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
├── .env
└── migrations/

main.go Example

package main
 
import (
    "log"
 
    "github.com/joho/godotenv"
    "github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase"
    "github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/plugins/migratecmd"
)
 
func main() {
    app := pocketbase.New()
 
    // Load environment variables from .env
    err := godotenv.Load(".env")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal("Error loading .env file")
    }
 
    // Register migrations plugin
    migratecmd.MustRegister(app, app.RootCmd, migratecmd.Config{
        Automigrate: true,
        Dir:         "migrations",
    })
 
    // Start PocketBase app
    if err := app.Start(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Environment File (.env)

Create a .env file in your project root to configure environment variables if needed.

Migrations

• Place your migration files inside the migrations folder.

• Automigrate: true will automatically apply migrations on app startup.

Run the Project

go run main.go

Your PocketBase backend will start and be ready for use.

Useful Commands

• Build project: go build

• Run project: go run main.go

• Tidy dependencies: go mod tidy

• Install a package: go get <package_url>