Currently thinking some custom codegen might suit what I'm after the most

Yeah something like that is probably the closest to what I'm describing although not sure I'm after a full framework.

I liked that sqlc is very easy to incrementally adopt and solves one problem really well.

It definitely sounds like the sort of thing which would have drawbacks.

Do you remember what made it tricky to work with? Is the main issue lacking control over the generated HTTP+JSON APIs?

ah yes I had came across this before! I think sqlc strikes the balance better for me than a query builder type workflow.

Both seem to cut down on some level of boilerplate which I like

Whenever I've asked others, there's a feeling that go is comparatively slower to develop.

Other languages often have well established frameworks which can speed up development (e.g. ruby -> rails, python -> django etc). It doesn't feel like go has anything that's quite the same.

For sure! Haven't used windsurf but AI will definitely speed things up. I'm probably thinking more down the route of "traditional" tooling in this case.

Generally always used the first one you linked, not aware of many alternatives.

This project might be of interest though? It's generates a RESTful API (including the openapi spec) based on proto definitions. Might be well suited if you happen to use protos already
github.com/grpc-ecosyst...