Zero-Downtime Go Module Updates Using AI and CLI Automation

This is a submission for the Amazon Q Developer "Quack The Code" Challenge: Crushing the Command Line

What I Built

I built a CLI tool in Go that automates safe dependency upgrades in Go projects using Amazon Q Developer. The tool addresses the common pain point of manually updating dependencies, which is often error-prone and time-consuming due to compatibility issues. Here's what it does:

Auto-scans Go projects for outdated dependencies

Uses Amazon Q to generate AI-powered compatibility reports

Predicts potential code conflicts before upgrading

Automatically applies safe upgrades, runs tests, and opens a GitHub PR

The tool streamlines the entire upgrade pipeline while integrating AI-powered risk analysis before making any changes — something that's often missing in conventional dependency managers

Demo

Demo Flow:

    Run the CLI: ./q-dep-updater -path=~/dev/myproject -repo=me/myproject

    See predicted conflicts before upgrades

    PR automatically created once tests pass

Code Repository

🔗 GitHub Repository – cli-rules

How I Used Amazon Q Developer

Amazon Q Developer was the intelligence behind this tool. I used the q chat CLI interface to:

Scan the project and extract outdated dependencies in structured JSON

Predict compatibility conflicts based on code patterns and version diffs

Generate a compatibility report with AI-based suggestions for refactoring

By integrating Amazon Q directly into the upgrade workflow, I was able to:

Detect breaking changes before installation

Avoid unnecessary manual debugging

Ensure only conflict-free upgrades move forward

Tip:

I found Amazon Q Developer's ability to contextualize Go code very effective when fed with detailed prompts about version differences. Using structured output like JSON made it easy to integrate with the CLI logic.