Building APIs with intent: Raphaël Simon on Goa and design-first development

Raphaël Simon created Goa, a design-first framework for building APIs in Go, to address the lack of structure in API development. Goa uses a domain-specific language to define APIs before implementation, then generates idiomatic Go code, documentation, and other artifacts from that single source. This approach helps teams stay aligned, reduces duplication, and improves maintainability in service-oriented architectures. The framework emphasizes starting with high-level design rather than jumping directly into code implementation.