How to Use gRPC Reflection in Go

gRPC reflection is not enabled by default in Go; you must explicitly register the reflection server on your gRPC server instance. Add the grpc_reflection import and call grpc_reflection.Register before starting your server to allow clients to introspect your service methods and messages.

import (
	"google.golang.org/grpc"
	"google.golang.org/grpc/reflection"
)

func main() {
	lis, _ := net.Listen("tcp", ":50051")
	s := grpc.NewServer()
	// Register your services here
	// pb.RegisterMyServiceServer(s, &myServer{})

	// Enable reflection
	reflection.Register(s)

	if err := s.Serve(lis); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("failed to serve: %v", err)
	}
}

gRPC reflection acts like a service directory that lets clients see what methods and data types your server supports without needing the code. You enable it by adding a single line of code to your server setup. This is useful for debugging tools or dynamic clients that need to discover available services at runtime.