whatisgithub

What is gopacket?

google/gopacket — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 6,776GoAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

In one sentence

A Go library for capturing and decoding network packets, letting developers inspect protocol details, source and destination addresses, and payload data to build network monitors, traffic analyzers, or security tools.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Packet capture
      Protocol decoding
      Payload inspection
    Use Cases
      Network monitors
      Traffic analyzers
      Security tools
    Tech Stack
      Go language
      Low-level syscalls
    Requirements
      Go 1.5 minimum
      Go 1.9 for some parts
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Build a network traffic analyzer that captures packets and identifies protocols and addresses in real time.

USE CASE 2

Write a security tool that inspects packet payloads for suspicious patterns on a local network.

USE CASE 3

Create a Go program that reads a pcap capture file and decodes each packet's protocol layers for offline analysis.

USE CASE 4

Build a bandwidth monitor that breaks down traffic by source and destination using live packet capture.

What is it built with?

Go

How does it compare?

google/gopacketcodesenberg/bombardierluraproject/lura
Stars6,7766,7786,773
LanguageGoGoGo
Setup difficultymoderateeasyhard
Complexity3/51/54/5
Audiencedeveloperops devopsops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires libpcap (or WinPcap on Windows) installed on the host system before the Go package will compile.

No license information was mentioned in the explanation.

So what is it?

GoPacket is a Go library for reading and decoding network packets. Network packets are the small chunks of data that computers send to each other over a network. This library lets Go programs capture those packets and break them apart to inspect what is inside, such as identifying the protocol being used, the source and destination addresses, and the payload data. The library is written in Go and is intended for developers building tools that need low-level network visibility, such as network monitors, traffic analyzers, or security tools. The README is minimal and points to the library's API documentation for details on what it can do. GoPacket was originally forked from an earlier project called gopcap and is now maintained under the Google organization on GitHub. The minimum version of Go required is 1.5 for most of the library, though a few specific components require Go 1.9 or higher due to dependencies on lower-level system interfaces.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I want to use gopacket to capture live network packets in Go and print the source IP, destination IP, and protocol for each one. Show me the minimal working code.
Prompt 2
How do I use gopacket to read a saved pcap file and iterate over each packet's layers to extract TCP payload data?
Prompt 3
I need to filter captured packets in gopacket to only process HTTP traffic on port 80. How do I apply a BPF filter at capture time?
Prompt 4
I want to build a simple network sniffer with gopacket that detects DNS queries and logs the queried domain names. Walk me through the packet decoding steps.

Frequently asked questions

What is gopacket?

A Go library for capturing and decoding network packets, letting developers inspect protocol details, source and destination addresses, and payload data to build network monitors, traffic analyzers, or security tools.

What language is gopacket written in?

Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go.

What license does gopacket use?

No license information was mentioned in the explanation.

How hard is gopacket to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is gopacket for?

Mainly developer.

Open on GitHub → Ask about another repo

This repo across BitVibe Labs

Verify against the repo before relying on details.

What are similar repos?