🎬 I Built an IMDb CLI App with Go — Search, Save & Compare Movies from Your Terminal

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📚 Table of Contents

Easily navigate through the blog:

• 🎬 Why I Built This IMDb CLI App in Go

• 🔧 What You Can Do with go_IMDB-cli

• 🧰 Technologies Used

• 📁 Project Folder Structure

• ⚙️ How It Works – Command-by-Command

  • 🔍 search – Search Movies by Title

  • 🔎 detail – View Movie by IMDb ID

  • ⭐ add – Save Movie to Favorites

  • 📋 list – Show Saved Favorites

  • 🗑️ delete – Remove a Favorite

  • ⚔️ compare – Compare Two Movies

• 🚀 How to Run the Project

  • 🛠️ Run Locally with Go

  • 🐳 Run with Docker Compose

• 📣 Try It. Fork It. Improve It.

• 🤝 Let’s Connect

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##🎬 Why I Built This IMDb CLI App in Go

As someone who enjoys working in the terminal, I wanted a fun and useful project that lets me explore movies without opening a browser. That’s why I built go_IMDB-cli — a command-line tool that helps you:

• 🔍 Search for movies

• 📄 View detailed IMDb information

• ⭐ Save your favourite movies

• ⚔️ Compare movies by rating and year

I chose to build this as a CLI because it’s lightweight, fast, and a great way to improve my Go skills while working with APIs and databases. It's simple, efficient, and fully offline for saved favourites — just the way I like my tools.

🔧 What You Can Do with go_IMDB-cli

This command-line tool is designed to make working with movie data fast, simple, and fun — right from your terminal. Here are the features it supports:

| Command   | Description                       | Example Usage                                    |
| --------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| `search`  | Search movies by title            | `./imdb search --title "Batman"`                 |
| `detail`  | View detailed info by IMDb ID     | `./imdb detail --id tt1234567`                   |
| `add`     | Save a movie to favorites         | `./imdb add --id tt1234567`                      |
| `list`    | List all favorite movies          | `./imdb list`                                    |
| `delete`  | Delete a movie from favorites     | `./imdb delete --id tt1234567`                   |
| `compare` | Compare two movies by IMDb rating | `./imdb compare --id1 tt0111161 --id2 tt0068646` |

• All commands are powered by the OMDb API and managed with a clean Go + Cobra CLI structure.

##🧰 Technologies Used

| Tech               | Why I Chose It                                                                       |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|        Go          | Fast, a compiled language that’s perfect for building efficient and portable CLI apps. |
|       Cobra        | A powerful library for building structured CLI commands and subcommands.             |
|       GORM         | An ORM that simplifies working with SQLite using Go structs.                         |
|      SQLite        | Lightweight embedded database to store favourite movies locally without setup.        |
|     OMDb API       | A free and simple API to fetch movie data by title or IMDb ID.                       |
|      Docker        | Containerises the app so it runs consistently on any system without manual setup.    |
|  GitHub Actions    | Automated testing and build workflows to ensure the code is always production-ready. |

##📁 Project Folder Structure

go_IMDB-cli/
│
├── .github/workflows/       # CI/CD pipeline config for GitHub Actions
├── api/                     # Handles OMDb API calls (search by title, get by ID)
│   └── omdb.go              # Functions to call and parse OMDb responses
│
├── cmd/                     # All CLI commands implemented using Cobra
│   ├── add.go               # Adds a movie to favourites
│   ├── compare.go           # Compares two movies by rating
│   ├── delete.go            # Deletes a movie from favourites
│   ├── detail.go            # Gets full movie details by IMDb ID
│   ├── list.go              # Lists all favourite movies
│   └── search.go            # Searches for movies by title
│
├── db/                      # Database setup and connection logic
│   └── db.go                # Initializes SQLite DB and migrates Movie model
│
├── models/                  # GORM model definitions
│   └── movie.go             # Movie struct (Title, Year, IMDb ID, etc.)
│
├── Dockerfile               # Docker setup to containerise the app
├── go.mod                   # Go module definitions
├── go.sum                   # Go module checksum file
├── main.go                  # Entry point: sets up and runs Cobra root command
└── README.md                # Project documentation and usage guide

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##⚙️ How It Works – Command-by-Command

Each feature in go_IMDB-cli is implemented as a command using the Cobra CLI library. These commands are neatly organised inside the cmd/ folder, and each performs a specific task, such as fetching data from the OMDb API or interacting with the local SQLite database using GORM.

🔍 search – Search Movies by Title

• Location: cmd/search.go

• Key Function: api.SearchMovies(title string)

• Flow:

  • Read --title flag.

  • Call OMDb API via SearchMovies.

  • Receive and unmarshal the JSON into SearchResponse.

  • Loop through matches and print each movie’s title, year, and IMDb ID.

Usage:

./imdb search --title "Batman"

🔎 detail – View Movie by IMDb ID

• Location: cmd/detail.go

• Key Function: api.GetMovieByID(id string)

• Flow:

  • Read --id flag.

  • Send request to OMDb via GetMovieByID.

  • Unmarshal JSON into a Movie struct.

  • Display full details: title, genre, plot, ratings, etc.

• Usage:

./imdb detail --id tt1375666

⭐ add – Save Movie to Favorites

• Location: cmd/add.go

• Functions Used:

  • api.GetMovieByID(id)

  • db.ConnectDatabase()

  • db.DB.Create(&movie)

• Flow:

  1. Read --id.

  2. Fetch movie data from OMDb.

  3. Initialize SQLite DB via ConnectDatabase().

  4. Create models.Movie instance and store it using GORM.

Usage:

./imdb add --id tt1375666

📋 list – Show Saved Favorites

• Location: cmd/list.go

• Functions Used:

  • db.ConnectDatabase()

  • db.DB.Find(&movies)

• Flow:

  1. Connect to the DB.

  2. Retrieve all movies with Find(&movies).

  3. Print each movie’s basic info (title, year, IMDb ID).

• Usage:

./imdb list

🗑️ delete – Remove a Favorite

• Location: cmd/delete.go

• Functions Used:

  • db.ConnectDatabase()

  • db.DB.Where("imdb_id = ?", id).Delete(&movie)

• Flow:

  1. Read --id.

  2. Connect to DB.

  3. Use GORM to delete the record by IMDb ID.

  4. Print confirmation or a "not found" message.

Usage:

./imdb delete --id tt1375666

⚔️compare – Compare Two Movies

• Location: cmd/compare.go

• Functions Used:

  • api.GetMovieByID(id1)

  • api.GetMovieByID(id2)

• Flow:

  1. Read --id1 and --id2.

  2. Fetch both movie details.

  3. Parse imdbRating to float and compare ratings.

  4. Compare release years for older/newer context.

  5. Print a comparison summary.

Usage:

./imdb compare --id1 tt0111161 --id2 tt0068646

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##🚀 How to Run the Project

🛠️ Option 1: ##Run as a Local Go Binary

git clone https://github.com/sidharth-chauhan/go_IMDB-cli.git
cd go_IMDB-cli
go build -o imdb

Check available commands:

./imdb --help
./imdb search --title "Inception"
./imdb detail --id tt1375666
./imdb add --id tt1375666
./imdb list
./imdb delete --id tt1375666
./imdb compare --id1 tt0111161 --id2 tt0068646

🐳 Option 2: ##Run Using Docker Compose

docker-compose up
/*----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
docker-compose run imdb search --title "Inception"
docker-compose run imdb detail --id tt1375666

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##📣 Try It. Fork It. Improve It.

If you enjoy working from the terminal and love clean developer tooling, I invite you to try out the project and explore the codebase:

🔗 GitHub Repo → sidharth-chauhan/go_IMDB-cli

Whether you're looking to contribute, learn Go, or just manage your favorite films offline — this tool is built with you in mind.

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##🤝 Let’s Connect

I'm always open to feedback, ideas, and collaboration. Feel free to reach out:

• 💼 LinkedIn

• 🐦 Twitter

• 💻 GitHub

• ✍️ Hashnode Blog