literally

A tool for analyzing and replacing string literals in Go code.

Modes

Analysis Mode (default)

Scans Go code to find repeated string literals and reports them with occurrence counts.

literally [options]

Common options:

• --mincount N - Minimum occurrences to report (default: 5)
• --minpkgcount N - Minimum packages literal must appear in (default: 4)
• --minlen N - Minimum string length (default: 1)
• --maxlen N - Maximum string length (default: 50)
• --schemaonly - Only report schema map keys
• --output FILE - Write results to file (default: stdout)

Replace Mode

AST-based replacement of string literals with constants. Only replaces actual Go string literals, not struct tags or import paths.

literally --replace \
  --literal "string_to_replace" \
  --constant constantName \
  --constants-file path/to/attr_names.go \
  --package path/to/package \
  [--dry-run]

Example:

literally --replace \
  --literal "checksum" \
  --constant attrChecksum \
  --constants-file internal/service/lexmodels/attr_names.go \
  --package internal/service/lexmodels \
  --dry-run

What it does:

1. Creates constants file if it doesn't exist
2. Adds constant to file in alphabetical order (if not present)
3. Replaces all matching string literals in non-test .go files
4. Preserves formatting with go/format

Replace options:

• --replace - Enable replace mode
• --literal - String literal to replace (required)
• --constant - Constant name to use (required)
• --constants-file - Path to constants file (required)
• --package - Package directory to process (default: .)
• --dry-run - Preview changes without modifying files

Building

go build