HTTP Client

Most Go services don't just answer HTTP requests, they also make them: an order service calls a product catalog, a checkout service fetches exchange rates, a webhook handler posts to an internal API. The net/http package handles the client side too, but the convenient one-liners (http.Get, http.Post) hide sharp edges around timeouts, connection reuse, and body cleanup that cause problems in production. This chapter covers how to build, send, and read HTTP requests safely, and how to structure a long-lived client that won't leak resources or hang forever.