Atomics

Canonical guidance

• prefer mutexes unless a simple atomic primitive clearly suffices
• use atomics for narrow cases like flags, counters, and pointers with precise semantics
• reason in terms of synchronization and visibility, not speed folklore

Use when

• single-value shared state
• fast-path flags
• lock-free structures only with strong expertise and tests

Avoid

• combining many atomics into a pseudo-transaction
• using atomics without understanding the required ordering
• assuming atomics automatically simplify code

Preferred pattern

type Gate struct {
	ready atomic.Bool
}

func (g *Gate) MarkReady() {
	g.ready.Store(true)
}

func (g *Gate) Ready() bool {
	return g.ready.Load()
}

Anti-pattern

• large state machines encoded through scattered atomic loads and stores

Explanation: This anti-pattern is tempting because atomics look cheaper than locks, but scattered loads and stores usually hide correctness bugs behind superficial performance intuition.

Why

• atomics trade simplicity for lower-level control
• misuse creates subtle concurrency bugs