CW Backend — Golang + AWS Lambda Serverless API

CW Backend is a fully serverless backend built using Golang, MongoDB, and AWS Lambda, deployed via the Serverless Framework. It powers the Cheems Writes (my own blog-site) with a highly modular, cost-efficient, and scalable architecture.

Key Concepts & Learnings

Initially, I encountered several challenges in deploying multiple Lambdas written in Go, including:

• Each AWS Lambda must be an independent directory with a main.go and package main.
• Reusing shared logic across Lambdas required modular packages like shared/ and models/.
• Incorrect structuring caused the go build to generate invalid archives instead of an executable.

Resolved With:

• Each route (e.g., tbGetAll) now lives in its own subfolder under functions/
• Build scripts set GOARCH=amd64 and GOOS=linux for AWS compatibility
• A custom Makefile handles ZIP packaging and deployment using Serverless

Example Folder: functions/tb-crud/tbGetAll/main.go

package main

import (
    "context"
    "functions/models"
    "functions/shared"
    "os"

    "github.com/aws/aws-lambda-go/events"
    "github.com/aws/aws-lambda-go/lambda"
)

func getAllTechHandler(c context.Context, req events.APIGatewayV2HTTPRequest) (events.APIGatewayV2HTTPResponse, error) {
    uri := os.Getenv("MONGO_URI")
    var blogs []models.TechBlog

    return shared.GetAll(uri, "techblogs", &blogs, c, req)
}

func main() {
    lambda.Start(getAllTechHandler)
}

Serverless Configuration

service: cw-backend
frameworkVersion: '>= 3.38.0'

plugins:
  - serverless-dotenv-plugin

custom:
  dotenv:
    path: .env

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: provided.al2023
  region: ap-south-1
  stage: dev
  environment:
    MONGO_URI: ${env:MONGO_URI}
    JWT_SECRET: ${env:JWT_SECRET}

package:
  individually: true

functions:
  tb-getAll:
    handler: bootstrap
    package:
      artifact: bin/tbGetAll.zip
      individually: true
    events:
      - httpApi:
          path: /tb/getall
          method: get

🛠 Makefile for Build Automation

build-tb-getAll:
	cd functions/tb-crud/tbGetAll && env GOARCH=amd64 GOOS=linux go build -ldflags="-s -w" -o ../../../bin/bootstrap main.go && cd ../../..
	cd bin && file bootstrap && build-lambda-zip -o tbGetAll.zip bootstrap && rm bootstrap && cd ..

build: build-tb-getAll

deploy: build
	serverless deploy --aws-profile cheems-writes --verbose

log:
	serverless logs -f tb-getAll --stage dev --region ap-south-1 --aws-profile cheems-writes

clean:
	rm -rf ./bin .serverless

Final Takeaway

This is okayish for simple CRUD applications like mine but for production-grade projects this will need sophisticated optimizations!

Each AWS Lambda must:

• Be in its own folder with main.go
• Use modular shared packages for logic reuse
• Be built using proper Linux environment flags
• Be deployed using the Serverless Framework

Conclusion

If you've read it till this end, consider giving a star!

Built with ❤️ using Go, designed for help by Cheems!